Bring It On! Dark Angel Style
by Vkitty
Summary: AU What if Manticore didn't exist? And Max Guevara was just a normal 17 year old cheerleader girl with a rich boyfriend, trying to survive her last year of high school when the arrival of some new next door neighbors twists her life around?
1. Chapter 1

Max Guevara's alarm clock buzzed annoyingly, waking her up from her nightmare. She grabbed it and threw it across the room, smiling when she heard the glass shatter.

"Ya know," her 'brother' Sketchy's voice floated across the room. "That's the third alarm clock in the week. Mom and Dad are going to get maaad!"

"Shut up, Sketchy!" Max shouted, launching a pillow at him. The pillow hit it's mark: Sketch's face.

"Ooh, you hit me with your pillow!" Sketchy taunted, waving his hands. Max rose out of bed, her threat pretty clear. Get out of my room or I'll pummel you. Sketchy got the message and beat it pretty quick and Max slammed the door after him.

About an hour later, Max emerged from her room and went down into the kitchen where her parents, Donald and Elizabeth (or as Sketchy lovingly called them: Deck and Renfro), and Sketchy were eating. Max sat down at the table and began helping herself to food.

"Sit up straight, Calvin!" Deck ordered. Sketchy sat up rod straight and continued eating his pancakes.

"Today's your first day of school, Max," Renfro reminded her.

"I never forgot," Max replied.

"Make sure that you get cheerleading captain," Renfro said. "I won't settle for anything less than the best sleeping in this house." Max nodded. Renfro wasn't joking either; when Sketchy told a dirty joke, Renfro made him sleep in the backyard for an entire year. It wasn't the fact that the joke was dirty -- oh no, it was that the joke was BAD that got to the woman.

A honking noise outside caught Max's attention.

"That's Logan!" Max said, jumping up.

"Take out the trash, will you, Max?" Deck asked.

"No, make Sketchy do it," Max said, pulling on her backpack.

"Max," Deck fixed her with that look. That evil glare that could scare a horse into acting like a cow if Donald Lydecker so wished.

"Fine," Max grumbled. "But Sketchy takes out the trash cans next week!"

"Mom!" Sketchy whined.

"I'll think about it," Renfro mumbled, not looking up from the stack of papers in front of her.

Logan Cale waited behind the steering wheel of his new Ferrari (his family was ridiculously rich) while Max pulled the trash cans out from behind the house. He honked the horn again as Max ran to the car.

"What's the hold up?" Max asked, opening the door.

"I'm going to be late for orientation, that's the hold up," Logan said. Logan was going to be a freshman at Washington State University, which would separate the two lovebirds for longer than they'd ever been separate during the two-year duration of their relationship.

Max leaned over to kiss Logan, but Logan pulled back.

"Hey, I can't kiss you in front of your parents," he said, waving at Deck, who had just come out to see Max off. "Bye, Mr. Lydecker!" Deck waved back. Max leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest. "Aw, don't get mad," Logan pleaded, starting the engine up and flooring the vehicle down the empty suburban lane.

When they reached Max's high school, Max grabbed her backpack from the backseat and opened the door. "Now when you get captain," Logan started. "Just remember to act surprised!"

"I'm sure I will!" Max said condescendingly. She slammed the door.

"Come on, Max! Why are you so angry?" Logan asked.

"I'm not! Just go!" Max exclaimed, pointing to the street.

"Hey, Max," someone said from behind her. Syl and Brin, also seniors and also on the cheer squad with Max. "Is that you, Logan?" Syl asked, peering through the windows of Logan's car.

"Hey, girls," Logan said from inside of the car.

"Is Max mad at you again?" Brin asked. She waved a finger at Max. "How mean of you, Max! What did Logan do to deserve that?" Max rolled her eyes.

"Bye," she said, walking away from the scene.

**

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Writer's Note: Take note of the chicken door to the right as you enter the Twilight Zone. Please keep all arms and legs inside of the vehicle as we proceed into part two: the new cheer squad captain.**

Disclaimer: Huh... last time I checked I wasn't Charles Eglee or James Cameron... therefore, I must not own Dark Angel.


	2. Chapter 2

Joshua Sandeman was probably about seven or eight years older than your average senior. No one knew his exact age, and they couldn't tell by his face because -- well, he never took his mascot costume (which happened to be a giant dog) off. Suffice to say, he'd been in his senior year of high school since before Max had been a freshman.

"Joshua doesn't test well!" was Joshua's usual reply to whoever decided to taunt the dog-boy about his suspicious lack of graduation. The fact that his father was the founder of the prestigious high school (but Max's own adoptive mother, Elizabeth Renfro, was currently running the school) sadly didn't help his chances of ever passing the twelfth grade. One thing Joshua _was_ good at, though, was wearing the ninety pound dog suit, which was something he enjoyed a lot. Rumors said that he even wore the suit in the shower and when he slept.

"Don't worry Joshua," Jondy comforted him when he showed up at the first day of cheer squad practice, still distraught at having failed his exit exams. "You already know everything there is to know for the tests. This year you just have to remember to keep your cool."

"Joshua _tries_ to keep his cool!" Joshua wailed. "But I don't!" Joshua stood up with a determined look on his face. "But Joshua won't give up! Joshua will study and... and... cheer! Cheer well!"

"That's the spirit!" Jondy said, grinning. "We'll cheer well! Win nationals for the fifth year in a row! And ace our SATs!"

"Yes!" Joshua said, jumping up and down, the dog-suit ears flopping with each jump. "We win!"

"We'll graduate high school and get out of this dump!" Jondy promised, also standing up.

"Yeah!" Joshua agreed.

"And go into the best college there is!"

"Yeah!" Joshua yelled. "Do colleges serve ham hocks?" he asked curiously, looking at Jondy. Jondy thought for a moment.

"We'll find one that does, and if they don't, then we'll _make_ them serve ham hocks!" she said.

"Very cool!" Joshua said.

"All right, stop playing around boys and girls," Valerie Bergstrom yelled, walking out onto the grass where the squad was waiting for her. "Now, it's been great being your captain for the past year and leading our squad to victory for the fourth time, but unlike some of us," she shot Joshua a stern look, Joshua whimpered, "I can't stay around school forever. The votes are in for who the next captain will be, and I'm positive that she _or he_ will help to cultivate the energy of the group and lead you to win nationals for the fifth time in as many years." Valerie breathed deeply. "So, let's meet your new captain."

Max held her breath, with her fingers crossed on both hands.

"Asha Barlow."

Asha sprang up, squealing and yelling as the rest of them clapped. Max was in shock.

But she was so much _better_ than Asha! Asha had only started cheerleading last year, when she'd joined the squad, and Max had been cheerleading since before she started school, even! Asha had nothing on her! Okay, so she was a little bit perkier than Max, but that was all!

Maybe it was because she was **blonde**. Max would definitely be having a chat with Herbal Thought after practice was over. Maybe he could spread some of the 'I and I' happiness.

Max's internal rant was cut off by Asha announcing what they were going to be practicing.

"I'd like to try some basic walls before we move onto anything more complicated," Asha said.

"Baby stuff?" Syl asked. "But we already know all of those! Let's move on to something better -- like a Wolf's Wall!"

"What's a Wolf's Wall?" Jondy asked, confused.

"Just the hardest cheerleading move known to mankind," Brin said simply. "But then again, some of us haven't been practicing the whole summer, so it might be hard for them," she looked at Jondy, "right, Jon?"

"'What the mind can perceive, the body can achieve,'" Zack quoted the school motto. "We can do anything we set our minds to, so I say we try the Wolf's Wall."

Asha sighed. "Fine, let's take a vote. Whoever thinks we should review basics, raise your hands." No one did. "Okay, a Wolf's Wall it is. Guys on the bottom; Brin, Max and Tinga in the middle and Jondy and Syl on top. Rest of us can spot, all right?" There was a general collection of "yeah"s and "sure"s from the crowd of teenagers as they all got into place.

"Great!" Asha exclaimed when everyone was in place. "Now this doesn't have to be perfect -- this is just our first time trying this, remember. I'm counting down now. Five, six, seven, eight! Go!" Max scowled as Zack and Krit pushed her up into the air, each holding one of her feet. How come she was in the middle? Valerie had always put her on the top of the pyramids! Then, of course, Asha was new, so maybe she didn't realize that...

"Jondy! Carry out!" Asha barked. Jondy nodded hesitantly, not looking at the ground.

"You bet I can!" she said, her big blue eyes fearful.

"Excellent!" Asha smiled. "Now, one, two, down, up --" The boy holding Jondy's right foot's hand accidentally slipped, starting a chain of events. Jondy fell down, with her left foot still on Tinga's shoulder, bringing Tinga down. But Tinga pulled forward, trying not to fall, but lost her balance and lurched over onto Brin, which made Syl fall, bringing Max down with her. In the end, most of the spotters (and Joshua who was knocked over by Tinga) had caught the girls. Except for Max, who fell on Asha.

**

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Writer's Note: I'll say it once and only once. I know nothing about cheerleading and I don't pretend to know anything about cheerleading. (At this point, I'm just copy and pasting from the script of Bring It On) But I'll try to learn as soon as I get to an adequate internet resource (so... like, Saturday). The girl Valerie Bergstrom is supposed to be Valerie Cale (Logan's passive-aggressive ex-wife). Let's just pretend Bergstrom's her maiden name, all right?**

Coming up next: The new next door neighbor! A new_er_ cheerleading captain! And a fight in the library!

Disclaimer: Dark Angel doesn't belong to me.


	3. Chapter 3

Asha's last words to the squad as she was carted off to the ambulance was that next practice they would review basics.

"You **didn't** get captain?" Renfro demanded when Max told her the bad news during dinner that night.

"No, but Asha's in the hospital, so --"

"You'd better go grab your sleeping bag from the garage, Max," Renfro said calmly.

Max looked at Deck. "Dad!" she implored.

"Elizabeth, can't you reconsider?" Deck asked, looking at his wife.

"No," Renfro said sternly. She looked at Max. "You'd better hurry. Maybe you can set a tent up before ten. The news says it might _rain_." Even Sketchy had the sense not to speak during the long silence that came after that. Max finally stood up, knocking her chair down in the process, and smiled grimly.

"Fine. I'll see you in the morning." She strode defiantly out of the kitchen and into the garage where the camping gear was stored.

"Bitch!" she growled, dropping the camping gear and her pillow on the bright green grass in the backyard, already dressed in her pajamas. "Complete and utter sociopath -- hypocrite! I hate her!"

"Aw, you kiss your mother with that mouth?" a taunting voice asked. Max looked up to see someone peeking over the top of the fence dividing the backyards of the development she lived in. Definitely a guy, Max thought, or a girl with very short hair and a very deep voice.

"I don't have one," Max snarled, starting to set up the tent before the rain started. "A mother, I mean."

"Yeah, me neither." She could practically hear the person shrug amiably. The guy climbed over the fence easily and landed on her side. He was good-looking and around her age, with dark blonde hair and hazel-green eyes.

"Yo, buddy," Max pointed to the ground. "This land is my land, and that land is your land. So keep to your land."

"How'm I supposed to keep you company if I'm on..." he jerked his thumb at his backyard with a wry smile, "my land?" He reached for the tent she was putting up, but Max pulled it back, "What's a girl like you doing sleeping outside anyways?"

"Thought I'd get a breath of fresh air," Max said, continuing to fix the ridiculously primitive (like, from the eighties) tent.

"You know, it's about to rain."

"Which is why I have a tent and not just a sleeping bag." If Max's little mess up of not getting cheerleading captain had been worse, Renfro would have left out the tent. Max sighed, having finally gotten the tent in some sort of working shape. She looked up at him. "How come I don't know you?" By association, Max knew just about everyone in the city.

"We just moved in." He extended his hand. "My name's Alec."

"Alec?" Max asked. "Like smart-aleck?"

"I guess you could say that," Alec nodded. "What's yours?"

"Max." Alec smiled.

"What? Like, Maximum Girl?" he asked. He held up his hands at Max's glare. "Woman?"

"I've got to be in bed by ten," Max said, pointing to her sleeping bag.

"Like I said, I'll keep you company."

"I don't need company," Max said. "I'm big girl now." Alec looked Max up and down.

"I can see that," he said, smiling laciviously. Max stared blankly at him.

"I'm. Going. To. Sleep," she said slowly.

"But I get so lonely," Alec complained faux-innocently. "All alone in my big, five bedroom house with only my lesbian sister and her lover to keep me company." He frowned. "Wait a second..."

"You can sleep here as long as you shut up about it," Max grumbled, slipping into her sleeping bag and resting her head on her arms.

"I thought you'd never ask," Alec said happily, laying down next to her in the tent. "I hope you don't snore."

"Shut up." There was silence. The world took this moment to suck even more as the skies opened up over Seattle and rain started pouring over the city.

**

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Writer's Note: Ooh la la, I got two chapters done in one day. I feel so accomplished.**

Disclaimer: Dark Angel does not, has not, and probably will never belong to me. Man, disclaimers are depressing.


	4. Chapter 4

"Max! Max! Max!" Joshua ran to the door of the suburban house and pounded on it loudly with his calculus book. The door was opened by Lydecker, and Joshua cowered a little and averted his eyes.

"Max not here?" Joshua asked.

"She's sleeping in the backyard," Lydecker said. Joshua nodded and ran around the house and to large, grassy backyard.

"Max! Max!" Joshua huffed, running (and slipping sometimes on the still-wet grass) to the blue tent. He bent down and tapped Max on the shoulder with his large costume paw. "Max! Max!" Max opened her eyes blearily.

"Ugh, Joshua, what are you doing here?" she asked, looking around. No Alec. Maybe the whole conversation with him had been some sort of strange, anger-induced hallucination.

"Asha! Joshua just came back from hospital!" Joshua said in a rushed voice.

"What about Asha?" Max asked, suddenly alert. Joshua gestured wildly with his hands for a minute, then explained.

"She can't -- can't lead. She -- broken -- leg very bad."

"She broke her leg?" Max asked.

"And three ribs."

"Ouch." Max felt slightly guilty for plotting the blonde's cheerleading career's destruction, then causing it.

"She -- you --" Joshua flailed again, waving his arms wildly and looking like a super-sized bloodhound trying to fly.

"Take deep breaths, Joshua," Max instructed. "Deep breaths." Joshua did as she said, inhaling and exhaling slowly. "Good. Now what's going on?"

"Captain!" Joshua exclaimed.

"What?" Max asked, getting out of the sleeping bag and standing up. "Who's captain?"

"Asha -- you -- says captain!"

"Joshua!" Max said sharply, seizing the two dog ears on either side of his mask and pulling him down to her level. Joshua looked at her from underneath his large costume helmet, his blue eyes blinking. "Who is the captain?"

"You!" Joshua said, jumping up and down again.

"Me?"

"You!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!"

"She didn't say some name that sounded a lot like mine? Maybe you didn't hear it right -- y'know she's got a few teeth missing..."

"You!" Joshua repeated. "You! You! You! Max is captain!" It still took Max about three minutes to absorb this.

**

* * *

Writer's Note: I hope I'm getting Joshua right... Mostly the chapters will be like this. Short and simple. I think.**

Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Angel. Plain and simple.


	5. Chapter 5

Max was thankfully saved from anymore backyard sleepovers when Joshua told her parents that she'd gotten cheerleading captain. Renfro and Lydecker both looked vaguely proud.

"We knew you could do it all along," Deck said as the family was eating breakfast. "You just had to have the right thought."

"You mean to break Asha's leg and have her cheering in special olympics for several months?" Max inquired.

"That's my girl," Deck smiled. Sketchy snorted into his waffles.

"Only in this family..." he mused. He looked expectantly at Renfro.

"No, you cannot break the leg of your basketball team coach. We're talking about completely different sports here."

"Damn it!"

And of course by the time Max got to school, everyone on the squad knew that she was captain because apparently, Joshua had sent out a mass email (Syl even brought a print out. It read: **Joshua visited Asha today at Metro Hospital. Asha says Max captain!**).

Congradulations were said, baked goods were brought (by Jondy) and eaten, and by the time homeroom came along, Max was practically glowing with happiness. She wasn't quite sure what she was happy about, as finding someone to replace Asha would be a nightmare and trying to negotiate a deal with the whiny basketball team to get the indoor court would be even worse -- but she was happy nonetheless.

"Class, we have a new student coming in today," Mrs. Vertes, Max's (and Syl's, Joshua's and Brin's) homeroom teacher announced right before morning announcements. "His name is Alec McDowell and he's coming all the way from Gilette, Wyoming."

"Ooh, all the way from Wyoming," Brin rolled her eyes from two seats behind Max. Max nodded in agreement until...

_Alec?_

It was **the** Alec. The Alec that had insisted on spending the night with her to "keep her company". **The** Alec, looking just as fine as he had the night before (even when he was soaking sopping wet), today in dark jeans and a long sleeved gray shirt that clung to him like... well, something really cling-y, Max was sure.

Brin pushed the boy in front of her out of his seat when she caught sight of him.

"Miss Vertes, there's a seat right here if Alec wants it," Brin said, tapping the desk with her pencil. Mrs. Vertes pointed to the seat.

"You can go right over there, McDowell." Alec did so, placing his backpack at his feet as he slid into the desk.

"Hey, Max," he whispered, pulling on one of Max's curly locks of hair. Darnit, and Max had gone through so much trouble to not be noticed by him. She'd hidden behind her chemistry binder and everything!

"Hi, Alec," Max mumbled as the morning announcements started on the television screen up in the corner. The morning announcements, as always, were hosted by One-Most-Likely-To-Get-A-Job-In-Television, and One-Most-Likely-To-Piss-Max-Off-The-Fastest, Ames White (okay, so the last title was Max's own creation, but the guy was a hateful sort of idiot!). Max caught Brin and Syl's looks of shock and introduced them. "This is Brin, and that's Syl."

"Where do you know Maxie from?" Syl asked innocently, curling one strand of blonde hair around her pencil.

"We just met last night," Alec said.

"Oh?" Syl and Brin said simultaneously. They both snuck a peek at Max, who was hiding her face in her binder again. "Ohh," they said suspiciously.

"Look," Max turned to Syl since she wasn't in the mood to crane her neck all the way around to look at Brin, "it's not what you think, all right?"

"What is it then?" Brin asked.

"Nothing!" Max said. "We just live near each other!"

"Ooh, did you meet her parents yet?" Syl asked Alec. "Her step-mom's the principal of the school, y'know. Elizabeth Renfro."

"Really?" Alec asked, looking at Max. "You didn't mention that last night."

"I didn't _feel_ like it!" Max growled.

"And she's the captain of the cheer squad," Syl continued, seemingly determined on giving Alec the short-list lowdown on her life, "been cheering since before she could walk. Trust me, I was in Cheer Tumbles class with her when we were three."

"So was I," Brin added.

"Cheerleaders, huh?" Alec asked as White droned on about the importance of not smashing the sprinklers with sledgehammers (an odd prank that had happened over the summer). He smirked. "I'll bet that's fun." Max glared back at him when Syl noticed something.

"Hey, where's Joshua?" she asked, looking around. Max shrugged.

"He came by to tell me that I was captain, ate some pork rinds, then left," she remembered.

"Who are we talking about here?" Alec asked. "Who's Joshua?"

"We aren't talking about anything!" Max snapped.

"Joshua's our school mascot," Brin told him, ignoring Max's tone. "He's never been late to school before, though. I wonder where he --" her eyes flickered to the television screen. "Oh my God," she whispered. All four seniors turned to look at the television up in the upper right hand corner of the room where Ames White was sitting with his flunkie, Otto Gottlieb holding Joshua in place behind him -- despite the fact that Otto was a full thirteen inches shorter than Joshua.

"Following learning about the Watergate scandal," White was saying, "I always wanted one of the big secrets of _my_ generation revealed. I mean, wouldn't it be great if you just looked outside and -- 'wow, guess who just floated to the top of the lake? Lochness Monster! That son of a gun exists! Died of natural causes, but he's there!' Am I right?" There was some murmurring among the class. "Well, since Mr. Lochness was busy this morning, I brought the next best thing!" The camera zoomed in on Joshua's dog mask.

"Just what is behind Joshua Sandeman's dog costume?" White's voice asked. "Who is the man behind the mask? Who _is_ Joshua?"

"Oh my God," Max muttered. She raised her hand.

"Yes, Miss Guevara?" Mrs. Vertes asked.

"Can I go to the bathroom?" Vertes's lips drew into a line but she nodded.

"Make it fast, Guevara."

"Go, Maxie, go!" Syl pleaded.

"Thanks, Mrs. Vertes!" Max got out of her seat and walked out of the room, breaking into an all-out run when she reached the hallway. The morning announcements were filmed in the library, which was, luckily, just around the corner. Even luckier, Max's friend Zane was the "integrated circuitry technician" (or to normal people, the cameraman). When Max burst into the library, everyone turned around in surprise; White, who was standing on top of his chair to reach Joshua's head, had his hands gripping the bottom of Joshua's mask as he tried to pull it off and Joshua tried to pull it down at the same time.

There weren't any teachers in the room, probably off in the cafeteria eating breakfast or something.

"Yo, Max," Zane greeted as Max strode confidently into the library

"White!" Max yelled. The skinny, pallid kid with spiky brown hair looked at her with narrowed eyes. Zane swivelled the camera over to point it at Max.

"Guevara," he spat, taking his attention away from Joshua. Joshua took this opportunity to tug his mask back down securely and scramble away from the table set up in the back of the library.

"Stop bothering Joshua!" Max shouted as White walked around the "set" to stand across from her.

"Why should I?" he asked. "Are you, Max Guevara, big bad cheerleader, going to beat me up?" he taunted.

"Zane!" Max said. "Get this on tape for posterity!"

"No problem, Maxie," Zane said, starting the tape.

White struck out at Max first, kicking at her. Max ducked, hearing the squeaks and squeals of tennis shoes running on the linoleum floors as dozens of students rushed to the library to catch the scene. Max only managed to get in one punch to the short kid's nose before Joshua took a running jump at White, knocking him to the ground in one leap and pinning him to the linoleum floor with the weight of his costume. White struggled and punched at the thick material of Joshua's costume futilely before huffing and ceasing all movement.

"Maxie wins!" Zane yelled, thrusting one fist in the air in triumph. The small crowd in the library erupted in a chaotic mess of clapping and cheering for a few glorifying seconds until all noise stopped abruptly and the room temperature seemed to drop a few degrees. A person could hear a pin drop in the next classroom as Elizabeth Renfro walked into the library.

"What's going on here?" she asked, glancing around from one student to another. "Joshua, get off of White." With the help of Krit and Zack, who each grabbed an arm and pulled, Joshua got to his feet and White sprang up.

"Guevara punched me, ma'am!" White took no time in blaming Max.

"He kicked me first!" Max said.

"She provoked me, ma'am!"

"He tried to take off Joshua's costume, ma'am!"

"She --"

"Stop!" Renfro ordered, holding a hand up. Both teens quieted immediately and settled for glaring at each other. "White, you have detention for two weeks. Guevara, you have one week," she said. Max beamed.

"But ma'am --"

"No arguments!" Renfro ordered. She looked around at the crowd. "Well? Get back to your classes before the bell rings! Joshua, your head's askew -- fix it or you'll have detention."

**

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Author's Note: I really like this chapter for no clear reason. Maybe it's because White gets in trouble. Also, for clarification, in this fic, Brin is more post-reindoctrination rather than pre-reindoctrination. Before reindoctrination, I doubt Brin would be doing so much to make Max angry.**


	6. Chapter 6

"Does it hurt very bad, Ames?" Wendy Olsen asked, mother-henning over White's split lip and bandaged up nose.

"No, it's the back of my head that hurts," White admitted. "Where that dog-boy freak knocked me to the floor."

"Perhaps you have a concussion, let me see," Wendy said, poking around the back of White's head.

"Hey -- hey! Ow!"

"Look at her," Max sneered. "Fawning over him like he's the victim." Joshua grunted in response. Max took another bite out of her bologna sandwich. "I'd beat the crap out of him if I weren't so afraid he was going to die on me, then I'd get a lawsuit." Joshua grunted again. Max looked at Joshua. "That still you in there?"

"Yes, Joshua still in here," Joshua said.

"Good. I thought you'd been replaced by someone."

"Joshua not replaced," Joshua said simply. "Don't worry." He snuck another Lays potato chip under his mask and chomped loudly. It was always an impressive feat on how he ate his lunch without removing his mask or getting crumbs on his costume ("Dry cleaning is a bitch," was Joshua's reasoning). "How is Logan?"

"Logan?" Max asked. She shrugged. "Haven't heard from him since he left for college. I thought he'd call me by now, but he must be really swamped with work and stuff."

Joshua nodded. "Yeah. Work. Logan works a lot."

"Yeah," Max sighed. "He does." Joshua looked at Max.

"Max not happy?"

"Not really," Max said. "I mean, it's like I'm really glad and stuff that Logan got into college, but I feel really sad and lonely now that he's gone."

"Hm... know what you mean."

Max's face brightened. "You do?" she asked. Joshua shook his head.

"No. I was just trying to make you feel better."

"Oh," Max said, her shoulders slumping again.

"Ooh! Ooh! I know!" Joshua said, shoving his tuna sandwich back into his paper bag.

"You know what?" Max asked.

"I know, I know!" Joshua said happily. "What time is it -- no, no, give Joshua your watch." Max handed over her watch and Joshua looked at the time.

"Are we going to do another one of those 'A Christmas Carol For Max' things again like last year? Because I don't think Brin was very happy being Future-Dead-Me..."

"'A Christmas Carol For Max' thing is only for holiday season blues," Joshua said. "It's September. So something else -- something _better_!" Max raised an eyebrow.

"Herbal," Joshua said, guiding Max over to the bald Jamaican who was standing by a dumpster two blocks away from the school, grinding a marijuana cigarette with his shoe. "Drop 'I and I' on Max before lunch is over."

Herbal Thought was two years older than Max. They became friends the first time Max had kicked Ames White's ass in her freshman year and got stuck in in-school isolation; he'd been there for attacking an exchange student named "Weeenston" who'd made a move on his "womahhhn". Unfortunately, Herbal Thought had been expelled that same year for smoking marijuana in the boys' restrooms, but he'd remained steadfast friends with his friends from school. Currently, he was working for a bicycle messenger service.

"And what be the matter then?" Herbal asked.

"What isn't the matter?" Max asked as Joshua checked his watch. "Renfro's worst than ever. Brin and Syl think that I slept with the boy next door -- which I didn't! I have to replace Asha in cheer squad. Logan's at college and I can barely get ahold of him. I earned enough to get a motorcycle over the summer and Deck _still _won't let me get one -- and I'm getting a zit!" Max raved.

"Ah," Herbal nodded. "But it is all good."

"It is NOT all good!" Max yelled. "All good would be me and Logan chilling -- me zitless and with a perfect cheer squad and no Alec and Brin and Syl being not how they are and Renfro being -- well, Renfro just being gone! White could be gone too! _That _would be 'all good'!"

"Fifteen minutes," Joshua chimed in.

"But you have to see everything as good," Herbal said. "Forgive the bad things that would happen. For example," he rolled his eyes, "my woman say that she just done run into Weeenston at the supa-market and she done invited him to dinner."

"Same Winston that tried to hit on your lady three years ago?" Max asked.

"Exactly," Herbal nodded. "She say that she will even cook Italia pasta for him, but she never do that for I. But do I and I say anything to stop her? No, because you have to overstand."

Max frowned. "So, three years ago when you sent Winston to the nurse's office with severe face-breakage was overstanding?" she asked.

"No," Herbal said. "That was very, very bad of I and I, and I will try not to do that again. I only hope that Weeenston will be as overstanding of I."

"Otherwise you'll bash his face in with an aluminum baseball bat again?" Max asked.

"Yes -- no! No!" Max nodded.

"I think I 'overstand' now," she said. She smiled. "Thanks, Herbal."

"Glad I could be of some assistance to ya," Herbal said, lighting up another cigarette.


	7. Chapter 7

17-year-old Kendra Maibaum was one of the most popular girls in school. Despite being only one-nineteenth Japanese (just how caucasian she was was proven by her platinum blonde hair), she was the president of the Daughters of Japan club; _and _she wrote the most popular column in the school newspaper: Romantic Antics. It was sort of a Trauma-rama column, only dedicated to the sweet things that girlfriends did for boyfriends or boyfriends did for girlfriends.

Well, actually, before it was 'Romantic Antics', she'd done a column called Sex in the School District about, well, _sex_ - only, too many parents called in about that, so Renfro made her change it.

And as usual, Max was complaining to anyone who had ears while Kendra typed on the laptop that one of her boyfriends had gotten her in the newspaper office.

"So then, I call Logan, and he totally blows me off - telling me he had to go to study meeting or something," Max ranted.

"You know, Dougie Colantonio did that same crap to Mia Luccino," Kendra sympathized. "And I saw him that same night hanging with his friends at the 41 Club."

"41 Club?" Max asked. "What's that?" Kendra looked shocked.

"You don't know what the 41 Club is?" she asked. Max shook her head. "It's this real ritzy place - uptown. They only let you in if you're a son of the mob or a floozy - or with a son of the mob. I've been in there a few times, if I do say so myself," Kendra smirked to herself.

"I'll bet you have," Max muttered. Kendra was always on dates, and she always got presents on those dates. It made Max wonder what exactly Kendra _did _to get those presents.

"Really, Max," Kendra continued, "you've got no special commitment to Logan, and it sounds like he's sleezing it up at State anyways, so why don't you hook up with someone around campus?"

"Because the last time I got hooked up with someone by a friend, it was Darren, and he sucked," Max said.

"You got him expelled after that disasterous semester, I think it was a fair trade," Kendra laughed. "Besides, the bites around here have gotten even _more _delectable since sophomore year."

"What 'bites'?" Max asked. "By junior year, everyone's staked out their claim and if you touch someone's man, you're dead."

"Maxie," Kendra said in a sing-song voice, "you act like we're in the animal kingdom... oh wait, we are!" Kendra shook her head. "I'm talking about the new guy - what's his name? Alex?"

"Alec," Max corrected without thinking.

"Oh, right," Kendra said, pausing in her typing. "Alex is the guy at Parker high - real cute, got eyes like honey. I need to call him."

"I thought you were in a committed relationship," Max said. "With what's-his-face and what's-his-face and what's-his-face?"

"Hey, I'm seventeen," Kendra told her. "I have no business being in a committed relationship until I'm at least this tall," she waved her hand about an inch above her head. "Anyways, what's with you and this Alec guy? I heard from Brin and Syl that you know him _very, very well_."

"Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but I don't. Brin and Syl have no idea what they're talking about," Max said harshly.

"Every lie has a kernel of truth," Kendra chirped. "Besides, I heard the same thing from Mia."

That was weird. Max didn't even remember talking to Mia in the past few days.

"She says that you two spent the night together," Kendra went on. "I can imagine it now. It was cold and rainy - as it usually is in Seattle - you two took shelter from the torrents in his house - no, his ramshackle abode. He made you food while you changed into dry clothes - one of his old t-shirts and some of his boxers - then you settled down to watch television; but even as you were watching the wacky antics of George Lopez, you couldn't get your mind off of the masculine prescence next to you. He pushed your hair away from your face, and suddenly, you two were locked in a passionate kiss and -"

That, in a nutshell, was what was always on Kendra Maibaum's mind.

"This is _so _going into Romantic Antics," she gushed, typing out her idea while Max silently planned the most ideal way to terminate her blonde friend's existance.

"It went _nothing _like that," Max said slowly. "I did not sleep with him!"

"That's not what Mia said," Kendra said in a sing-song voice; her fingers went a mile a minute across the keyboard.

"I don't care what Mia said, Kendra!"

"Jeez, Max, I'm just kidding!" Kendra assured her. "I'm not even writing about you."

"Then what _are _you doing?" Max asked.

"I'm on my MySpace. I've got two hundred friends now, and like, 180 of them are hot guys. Look at this one!" Kendra spun her laptop so Max could see her elaborately decorated profile. "So, are you going to Joshua's 'Get Better, Asha' party this weekend? First party of the year."

* * *

**A/N: ****Kendra's MySpace hunting is all thanks to my friend, Yvette. Hunting for hot guys on MySpace is all she does. All day. Without pause. **

**Please review! It keeps me happy. And me happy means more writing. **


	8. Chapter 8

Okay, so maybe there _was _a reason Joshua hadn't graduated yet.

He was a party animal, which was why he never made it to tests on time. He was always throwing a 'Boo! Tests!' party the night before where they would shred SAT booklets. This led to him getting up late the next day and failing his test.

Nevertheless, the parties were off the hook (to some people, they were "hot", and in some areas, they were known as "off the heezy") and Max hadn't missed one since she'd started high school. The absence of Logan _wasn't _going to stop her from having fun. She was positive of that.

"Max not having fun?" Joshua asked with a tilt of his giant dog head when he saw her. She was sitting at a table looking at the design on it.

"I'm fine, Josh, really," Max said, dodging the question.

"Everyone else," Joshua gestured to the rest of the people - most of the school was packed into the basement of his house, "having a lot of fun. Dancing, laughing, talking. Max not doing any of those things. Max not having fun." This time, it was more of a statement and not a question.

"I guess I just miss Logan a lot," Max said, regretting the words as soon as they'd come out of her mouth. Joshua held his hands up - the universal stop sign.

"Stop. Joshua bring someone to bring the fun back to Max." He ran off into the crowd, leaving Max staring at a bowl of cheez-puffs, then came back with an African-American girl in tow. "Max, meet Cindy. Cindy, meet Max. Cindy have off-the-heezy fun skills."

Max looked up at 'Cindy'. "Hi," she said quietly.

"Hi," Cindy said back. Joshua steered Cindy into the seat next to Max.

"Cindy, bring fun back," he ordered. "Joshua going to see what Sally want _this time_." Joshua again disappeared into the crowd. Max ate a cheez-puff.

"Joshua thinks I'm unhappy because my boyfriend went to college and hasn't called me since," she said by way of introduction.

"My girlfriend just went to jail." Max perked up, someone was worse off than her.

"Really, why?" she asked.

"She murdered her father because he put the moves on me," Cindy said with a ghost of a smile. "I always go for the bad-asses."

"Let's redo this whole introduction thing," Max decided, holding out her hand. "Hi, I'm Max Guevara." Cindy shook her hand.

"Cindy McEachin. You can call me 'Original Cindy', though," she said. "I just got here with my family. My mom, my step-dad, my hoodrat brother..."

"I've got an idiot brother, too," Max said. "I can sympathize with you."

* * *

**A/N: Now everyone hold your breath until the next chapter and try to figure out who OC's brother is. **


	9. Chapter 9

"You can't put someone on the cheer squad just because you're _friends _with them!" Brin shouted at Max during practice the next Monday.

"Hey, not only have me and Original Cindy had a very fruitful friendship over the past week and a half, but she's also a medal-winning gymnast," Max said calmly. "Besides, if it weren't for most of us - including you, Krit, Tinga and Asha - the squad would be a very different team."

"You're using a gymnast instead of a cheerleader?" Brin exclaimed. "That's like... tofu instead of chicken! The real stuff will always be better!" She put her hands on her hips. "What does she look like, anyways? She better not be one of those fugly-ass gymnasts you see on ESPN!" She gestured to her arms, "Popeye muscles here, and Serena Williams gams there," she pointed to her legs.

"You know what you call a cheerleader with no rack," Zane said from where he and Krit were reading a comic-book.

"Normal?" Krit asked, in one of his usual three-words-or-less sentence format.

"Asha?" Zack asked.

"No," Zane grinned, "useless." Max rolled her eyes.

"She's nowhere near the 'fugly' end of the scale, all right?" she said. "And she's our _only choice_. You saw yourself those off-balance weirdos that came up for auditions last year when Tinga was out! And we've only got six weeks until Regionals!"

"She's got a point, Brin," Zack said. "If we're one person down, we'll be staggering the whole season. Valerie picked everything out for us - including the number of girls."

Brin turned really, really red with fury before she finally uttered a small, "Fine," and walked to her place in the gym. Meanwhile, Original Cindy finally made her way out of the girls' locker-rooms (her face freshly made-over again) and took a seat next to where Joshua was sitting and eating pork rinds in the bleachers. She wanted to see what she thought of the squad before joining.

Max motioned to the rest of the squad ("Secret cheer hand signals," Joshua whispered to Cindy, "only for captains like Max.")

"Five, six, seven, eight!" Max yelled. The only problem was, about sixteen seconds into the cheer, Original Cindy walked _out. _

* * *

"Well, what are you going to do about this, Maxie?" Brin asked smugly. "Your BFF left us hanging and we're still a person short." 

"There're six weeks until regionals, Max," Syl said quietly. "We can always rework the cheer to the number of girls we have. It would have taken a new girl too long to figure out the ropes anyways."

"Or," Joshua suggested from the bleachers, "Max can figure this bitch out by herself without Brin or Syl."

"I like that choice," Max decided quickly. "I'm going to go talk to OC and see what the hell's up. Zack, you take over for practice."

"No problem, Max," Zack said immediately.

"Thanks. Joshua!" Max gestured for the dog-suited senior to get off of the bleachers. "You said you know where Original Cindy lives, right?" Joshua nodded.

"Right next to you," he said.

Max whirled around on him. "What?" she demanded.

"Cindy live right next to you," Joshua repeated. "33_8_ Waverly."

"That can't be," Max said. "Alec -" she cut herself off.

_"But I get so lonely," _Alec had complained to her._ "All alone in my big, five bedroom house with only my lesbian sister and her lover to keep me company." He frowned. "Wait a second..."_

* * *

"So, here's the plan," Max said to Joshua in a conspiratory whisper as they hurried up the steps to the house next door to Max's. "I'll knock on the door, and if Alec answers it, you distract him by taking off your head and I'll slip past him to go see OC." Joshua shook his head. 

"Can't take mask off," he said. "Uh... face might get dusty."

Max frowned. "Your face might get... do I want to know?" Joshua shook his head again. "I won't ask, then." She rang the doorbell. There was the pounding of steps on the staircase, then the door opened.

* * *

**A/N: ****I can't quite tell you what's going to be in the next chapter (since I'm not really sure, myself), but I can tell you this: eventually, Joshua's mask _will be _pulled off. Feel free to wonder what's underneath it and keep the reviews coming!**


	10. Chapter 10

For a few seconds, all that Max and Joshua heard was the pounding of feet on the steps, then some raised voices. The door still didn't open.

"Maybe they're not home," Max said undecidedly.

"No! No! No!" someone said from inside. The door swung open and both high-schoolers were greeted by the sight of a petite, curvy blonde girl holding a beer can.

"Who are you?" she asked nosily.

"Um... we're here to see Original Cindy?" Max said. "Who are you? Or does Alec have _another _sister?"

The blonde girl grinned. "Oh, no, I'm Alec's girlfriend -"

"She's not!" Alec yelled from inside of the house. "Go away, Flo!" Flo pursed her lips and shook her head.

"He's in a bad mood. I'd better go back home before his parents come back," she said in a lowered voice.

"Stay home!" Alec shouted. Flo grabbed her jacket and fled the house.

"What was that all about?" Max asked, entering the house with Joshua close at her heels. Alec was crashed on the couch, in front of the television.

"Some girls just can't take a clue," he said blankly.

"Is Original Cindy here?" Max asked. Alec grimaced.

"No, she moved back to Wyoming. Said something about "goddamned cheerleaders" or something..." he looked over the back of the sofa. "Hey, you're a cheerleader, right?" he asked.

"This isn't funny," Max said. "We've got to find her! We need her on the team!"

"Is her substance abuse issue going to be a problem?"

"Well, my step-mom's the principal of the school and _she's _a former cheerleader so..." Max put a finger to her chin. "No."

"What about her lesbianism?" Alec asked.

"Alec," Cindy said from the top of the stairs. "Shut up." She looked at Max and Joshua. "Hey."

"Why did Original Cindy leave?" Joshua asked. Leave it to the dog-man to get straight to the point. "Everybody was angry."

"Look, I'm just gonna put this straight out," Original Cindy said. "I can't join the squad. I'm no copy-cat - hear the name: _Original _Cindy."

"What are you talking about?" Max asked. "Those cheers are one hundred percent original! Count the trophies. We wouldn't be able to compete if we had stolen cheers!"

"Well, your trophies are bullshit because all of ya'll are liars," Cindy exclaimed.

"Sweet. Chick fight," Alec breathed. "And me without my video camera - damn!"

"Shut up!" Max and Cindy both chorused.

"Show us!" Joshua said finally. Cindy looked up at Joshua.

"What?"

"If squad is really stealing cheers from another team, then you show us the other team to see their cheers," Joshua said calmly. "Cindy shows us."

"Yeah," Max said, her gaze also on Joshua. "That sounds like a great plan. Cindy show us."

"Cindy show us," Joshua repeated.

"Can't," Original Cindy said with a shrug of her shoulders.

"And why the hell not?" Max shouted.

"Because she got her car privileges taken away after she totalled the last one," Alec said from his spot on the couch. "Did you ever wonder why she rides her bike all around? She wrapped her old 'Benz around a pole."

"What about you?" Max asked, spinning on her heel to face Alec. "What is your car status?"

Alec gulped.

"You can't make me drive you all the way down to Gillette to watch _cheerleaders_," he said with a hint of fear in his voice.

"Two girls and one six-foot-five man in a ninety-pound dog costume against one eighteen-year-old boy?" Original Cindy nodded. "Yeah, we can."

"Well, if we're heading into the dirty part of Wyoming, we better not take the Jag." He sighed and grabbed his car keys.

* * *

Alec and Original Cindy's parents loved them so much (ie: spoiled them so much) that... 

They had their own cars.

Six of them.

Each.

Well,seven if you counted Alec's motorcycle.

All of this made for one big-ass car garage.

"Hey, hey, hey," Alec said, carefully lifting Max's hand off of his lime-green motorcycle. It wasn't _that _bad - give it a paint job and upgrade it, and it would be a decent ride. "Go touch Cindy's cars, why don't you?"

"None of them are motorcycles," Max grumbled.

"Hey, Alec, let's take this one!" Cindy called, gesturing to Alec's sapphire blue Cadillac STS. Joshua was already in the driver's seat.

"Why don't we just cut off my arm and drive _that _there?" Alec asked sarcastically.

"Because it won't help the economy," Original Cindy replied dryly. "Max, come get in. Joshua, you know how to drive, right?"

"Uhhh..."

"I'll take that as a 'Yes, Original Cindy, I do know how to drive. How responsible of you to ask.'"

* * *

Six minutes later, they pulled over so that Alec could drive.

* * *

**A/N: ****To answer a few questions: Biggs and CeCe _will _be showing up eventually. I've got the chapter with Biggs (and Dalton as well, for that matter) all written up, I've just got no place to put it at the moment. **

**Alec and Original Cindy _are _step-brother and step-sister (I know, I'm a dirty rat with that trick). Ben may or may not be showing up, and Normal definitely will be showing up as one of three things that I haven't decided yet. And look out for Rafer, as well. **

**In the next chapter: The trip there and the trip back. The West Gillette Chameleons!**


	11. Chapter 11

The West Gillette Academy Chameleons had some of "the tightest moves this side of the Atlantic" according to Original Cindy. And according to Alec, it had the "uptightest students this side of... ever".

"Ignore him," Cindy told her. "He tried to hook up with the former head cheerleader and she kicked his ass for it." Max grinned.

"Sounds about right."

"How the hell was I supposed to know she was an asexual?" Alec exclaimed.

"She wore a shirt that said 'ineffable'!" Original Cindy reminded him.

"I thought that meant, like, 'unexplainable'," Alec said. "Not unfuckable!"

"We're here," Joshua alerted them, seeing the sign on the front lawn that proclaimed:  
**WEST GILLETTE ACADEMY  
****Proud Home of the West Gillette Chameleons**

"What kind of mascot is that, anyways?" Max asked. "Chameleons?" Alec looked behind the seat to grin at her.

"Just wait. You'll see."

* * *

There were about twenty cheerleaders sitting by the sidelines during the Chameleons vs. Panthers football game - and one lizardy-looking mascot smoking a cigar. The strange part was, they all somehow resembled the cheerleaders on Max's squad. 

"Okay, see that girl over there?" Alec asked, pointing to an African-American girl with her hair pulled back on the sidelines. "That's Jazelle Rodriguez - codename Jace, the captain of the team. But it's not her you want to worry about, it's the girls right next to her." Indeed, there was a small cluster of girls next to Jace - similar to Brin, Jondy and Tinga. "Keema, Maddox and Jewel - they see _everything_. And if they see _you, _Jace will beat you up."

"What about the guys? Who are they?" Max asked.

"I only know Lane and Devon. You don't want to get in their way, either," Alec said. "They're insane."

"What do you mean 'insane'?"

"Well..." Alec sighed.

_Flashback_

**"I SWEAR! I DIDN'T TOUCH HER!" Alec shouted as he ran down the halls of the school. "WE WERE JUST DOING HOMEWORK!" **

**"YOU'LL PAY, MCDOWELL!" Lane's voice echoed through the deserted corridor. Alec turned a corner quickly, only to find himself running smack into Devon. **

_End Flashback_

"Yeah," Alec nodded. His eyes were wide from remembering.

"You made out with his girlfriend in the library - he chased you down and beat you, and you say he's insane?" Max asked incredulously.

"Those rumors were completely unfounded!" Alec said angrily. "Besides," he shrugged. "I never make a move on another guy's girl."

"Yeah, right," Max deadpanned as Original Cindy came over with the three hot dogs, four Cokes and one bag of pork rinds that she'd ordered from the snack bar.

"Nice," Alec rubbed his hands together before taking his food, "football grub."

After a few minutes, the cheerleaders finally got up to do their cheer. Max's jaw dropped - it was the exact same routine that Valerie had taught them at the end of the school year. The moves were a bit different, but the words were exactly the same.

That bitch...

"See what I mean?" Original Cindy asked, taking a sip of her Pepsi. "That's why I didn't want to join the squad. Original Cindy's a lot of things, but I am no cheater."

"I see," Max nodded. "I see."

* * *

Of course, the night didn't just end there. Alec decided to get off some of the pent-up energy that they'd accumulated during the car-ride up (not to mention sitting in the stands for an hour to watch a football game where the home team actually _lost), _they would go to a club when they got back into Seattle. 

"You're kidding me, right?" Max asked. "We're seventeen. Clubs are off limits."

"Not for me," Alec said, flashing his ID card and a smile. "Eighteen since Saturday."

"Joshua has one, too," Joshua said, digging in his pocket and holding up an ID. The age on the card was mysteriously obscured by his thumb.

"You're sure we'll get in?" Max asked cautiously. She didn't want to get picked up by cops and have to spend another week sleeping in the backyard.

"Positive," Alec confirmed. "Besides, when you're with me, you can get into anywhere. "

"If you say so," Max mumbled. "But if we get caught by the police -"

"If the po-pos even come near us, we can shove Alec in front of him and say he forced us into the club," Cindy said with a smile. "I've done it before. It always works. Besides, a little fun could probably help us to figure out what to do for regionals."

Max frowned. "Us?" she asked. "You're joining the squad?" Original Cindy grinned.

"You fools need all the help you can get."

_

* * *

Six hours later _

"Alec!" Joshua yelled, pushing his way through the crowd. "Alec! Alec!"

"Hey, Doggie-Boy," OC greeted him from the bar, where she'd been chatting with an attractive waitress. "What's goin' on?"

"Can't find Max," Joshua said worriedly. "Haven't seen her in almost an hour."

"She's gotta be around here somewhere, Josh," OC said. "She wouldn't just leave. Maybe she's just upstairs somewhere."

"Upstairs." Joshua looked up towards the second floor of the club. "Maybe Max upstairs."

"You've got a cell phone, right?" Cindy asked. Joshua nodded. "Call her. If she doesn't answer, we'll go looking." Joshua nodded and the suit stopped moving entirely around him. It took Original Cindy a moment to realize that he was moving around inside of the suit to reach the cell phone. After a moment, Joshua shook his head.

"Max not answering."

"Well come on, then, Big Dog. We've got to find our boo, right?"

* * *

**A/N: I've basically said everything I need to say at the moment in the last chapter. **

**I've never really liked doing flashback sequences, but it seemed about right for this chapter. Considering that there are flashbacks in the actual movie, I think I can get away with it. **

**In the next chapter: Where is Max? For that matter, where did Alec go? **

**Keep the reviews coming, please!**


	12. Chapter 12

"You check those rooms," Original Cindy directed Joshua. "I'll check this row over here."

"Okay," Joshua nodded as the door to the bathroom opened. Alec stumbled out, half-dragging Max alongside him with her arm over his shoulder.

"Guess who I found puking her guts out in the bathroom?" he asked.

"Max!" Joshua exclaimed, rushing to help shoulder Max's weight. "Max! Max!"

"What?" Max asked dizzily.

"Did you tell Sketchy to make an excuse for you to go to Wyoming?" Joshua asked. Max's eyes widened.

"Ohhh!" she said. "Ohhh God, I'm in so much trouble."

"Come on," Cindy said. "We gotta get you home _now_."

_

* * *

Meanwhile..._

Sketchy really wasn't worried that Max was gone, because Deck and Renfro were also gone out on a restaurant date (they expected Max to be home to watch him).

Pfft! Like he _needed _a babysitter. He was fifteen years old! He had thirty fireworks buried in the backyard and a marijuana plant in his closet. He needed a _clientele. _

"Yeah, I'm totally hooked up," Sketchy said on his cell phone to Druid. "Thing's like two feet high. Renfro hasn't even noticed it! How sweet is that?" He opened the refrigerator and perused it's contents. Cautiously reaching out a hand, (one could never be too careful when seeing how what Renfro cooked the previous night had mutated over the last few hours) he lifted up the foil on one container and saw what looked close enough to french fries to be a match for him.

"Sweet!" he crowed. "Nah, not you, dude. I just found fries in my fridge. Can you believe it? Fries! Renfro never lets us have fast food!"

He stuck the container into the microwave and turned the dial to "4 minutes". The fries looked half-frozen.

"Yeah, so grab your dudes and come over here. Bring money, too," he said, running up the stairs. He'd get the fries when the timer rang.

**

* * *

A/N: Now, I hope everyone else in the world knows the basic rule of microwave-ation that has been violated in this chapter: aluminum + microwave great need for a fire extinguisher.**

**(I believe I am branching out from the usual Max POV. Yay for me!)**

**In the next chapter: Deck and Renfro come back from their dinner date to find...**

**Review if you want more chapters, people! **


	13. Chapter 13

"We've got a guest room upstairs if you want to crash - okay," Alec shrugged as Max hurried off to find the nearest bathroom in what Renfro commonly called "that big tacky castle next door" or, the house next door.

"Leave her alone, asshole," Original Cindy said, shouldering past him. "She's sick, can't you see that?"

"Sorry Cindy," Alec said with a roll of his eyes. "Should I make her _tea, _too?"

"Yeah, in fact," Cindy decided. "Go make some tea."

"Fine!" Alec sighed, walking off into the kitchen.

"And get cookies, too!" Original Cindy yelled after him. She knocked on the door to the bathroom. "You all right in there, boo?" a tortured-sounding groan came as an answer. "All right. Alec's making tea in case you want to come out soon." Another groan. "Okay then."

"Hey," Alec ran into the living room, jumping over the sofa to get to the bathroom door. "Hey!" he opened the door. "Someone set your house on -" the door was slammed shut from the inside. "Ohh-kay," Alec looked at Original Cindy. "Cindy, someone set Max's house on fire!"

* * *

Don Lydecker and Elizabeth Renfro drove home from a lovely dinner at an expensive restaurant to find one of the worst things a father and a mother could find. Their house was engulfed in flames.

Luckily, someone had enough sense to, instead of just standing outside of the house and staring (like most of the street was doing), actually call the firemen.

Max was nowhere in sight, but Sketchy was in an ambulence - doused in water from the hose and with a blanket around his shoulders, being questioned by a detective. Only, when Don and Elizabeth had gotten out of the car and ran over to their son, did they see the real damage.

"Mom! Dad!" Sketchy shouted - there was a hint of fear in his voice.

"Is that..." Renfro's eyes widened comically and her mouth formed a disgusted 'M' shape reminicent of a Charlie Brown cartoon. Deck took a step back from his adopted son as he surveyed the damage.

"Ma'am," the paramedic said, touching Renfro's shoulder gently. "It appears your son is fine. But we'll have to take him to the hospital. We don't have the resources here to cut the cell phone off of his cheek."

* * *

**A/N: Inspired by the beer can on the hand in Drop Dead Gorgeous (which I watched non-stop for a week a few days ago.) Also, about the 'Max puking in the bathroom thing'; just think - maybe that's not the _only _thing that happened. (And trust me, something else _did _happen.)**

**Please review!**


	14. Chapter 14

For punishment for burning the house down, Renfro gave Sketchy one of her most sadistic, inhumane punishments ever.

She had the doctors post-pone the cell phone removal so that he could walk around for a month with a Samsung stuck to one side of his head.

Fortunately, Original Cindy's mother (and Alec's father) invited Max's family to stay at their "giant tacky castle" while they got their house back together. Of course, Renfro wouldn't stand living in a tacky castle such as Cindy's for too long. The contracters were hired and paid by the time the night was finished.

On the good side, this meant Max was able to help Original Cindy with her cheers on a more frequent basis. On the _bad _side, this meant more of Alec on a more frequent basis. As if having him in five of her classes wasn't enough! Now she had to compete with him for hot water in the shower, too! (Well, he'd suggested taking a shower together, but Max wasn't about to go for that idea.)

But, on the bright side, Logan finally called. On the ugly side, it had been on the night that Max went dancing after seeing the West Gillette Chameleons, and he'd gotten her voice message box.

And, well, the cheer squad weren't all offended by the fact that Valerie had stolen cheers from another team.

"It's like an unwritten rule of cheerleading," Brin said. "Teams can steal other teams cheers a few times, just like singers can steal songs a few times. I mean, paging Dr. Britney Spears!"

"We won _trophies _with their cheers, Brin!" Max exclaimed. "That completely violates whatever unwritten rules there are!"

"Why are we even worrying about this?" Brin asked. "The West Gillette Chameleons have never gone to even Regionals with their routines! They can't prove anything. If anything, we can say that they stole _our _cheers."

"We spent a lot of time on those routines, Max," Syl agreed. "To give them up and try to make a new one would be total suicide."

"Exactly," Brin said. Max looked towards Zack.

"What about you, Mr. Brutal-Honesty? What do you think?" she asked. Zack shrugged.

"They've got a point, Max," he said. "And we've got a new person on the squad. It'll take a week at least to make up a new cheer, and we'll already have to be teaching Cindy the basics -"

"Ya'll are unbelievable!" Original Cindy finally burst. "We're talking about cheating here and ya'll act like we're talking about taking the last piece of cheesecake or somethin'!"

"Same diff, new girl," Brin shrugged it off. "Val stole their cheesecake, and now they're probably a little bit mad. We ate the cheesecake, and it was good, and now there's no going back because the cheesecake eating regionals are only a few weeks away, so we might as well go along with our original plans. Who's with me?" Most of the team raised their hands except for OC, Joshua, Max and Tinga.

"I don't think it's a good plan at all," Tinga said. "My horoscope says that the upcoming month will bring a big embarassment."

"You sure that isn't last year's horoscope?" a cruel voice asked from the doorway. "Because you getting knocked up was a real embarassment for the school!" Everyone snapped around to see White holding a video camera pointed at them.

"White!" Max shouted. "I'm going to kick your ass!"

"I don't care now that I've got evidence that you guys are stealing cheers from... who was it? Oh, yeah, the West Gillette Chameleons - what the hell type of mascot is that? No wonder your cheers suck!" he jeered.

He was so focused on the screen of his video camera, that he didn't see Joshua racing up the side stairs to the door until Joshua was in his line of sight. White let out a shriek as Joshua tackled him.

Max had no idea a man in a ninety-pound dog suit could be so stealthy.

In the next second, Zane was headed up the stairs, too. He was quickly followed by the entire squad.

Zane grabbed the camera that White had accidently dropped and pointed it at the two struggling on the ground.

"Josh, get him in the teeth!" Zane shouted. "Make sure he won't be on television for the _rest _of senior year!"

Then, the impossible happened.

White pulled Joshua's head off. Joshua's head rolled away, then teetered on the edge of the bleachers and bounced down the seats.

Everyone's eyes widened.

"How the hell does that _thing _fit under a mascot head?" Syl exclaimed with a look of surprise.

* * *

**A/N: I told you it'd come off. I was really planning to have Joshua's head come off later in the story, but it seemed to fit better here. And, yes, Tinga was previously pregnant in this story. **

**If you want to find out what's under Joshua's mask, review! **


	15. Chapter 15

"Zane!" Zane looked up from Joshua to Max. "Destroy that tape. Zack, Krit!" Zack and Krit looked up as well. "Kick his ass," Max ordered. "But don't kill him. Renfro's only got enough power to make so many lawsuits disappear. The rest of you," everyone's eyes were on Max. "We don't _ever _speak of this_ again. _Understand?"

There was a general chorus of distracted "yes", "yeah sure"s, and head nods.

"No," Max said sharply. "Say 'I understand'." They did. "Great. Joshua, get up and put on your mask before somebody else sees -"

"God, she really _is _becoming Renfro." Max whirled around to see Brin whispering to Syl. Brin straightened back up as if she were a soldier under scrutination by her captain or something (and it scared Max that she'd made that connection).

"You're insane!" Max said. "I'm not becoming my step-mom! I'm not!"

* * *

"It's a medically proven fact," Sketchy said. "All girls will at some point turn into their mothers. I saw it on Sex and the City... or Friends... one of those chick shows, anyways." 

"Had a running commentary?" Original Cindy asked. Sketchy nodded. "Big-nosed girl with frizzy or curly hair?" Sketchy nodded. "Sex and the City," she confirmed.

"I'm not turning into Renfro," Max said, shaking her head. "I can't be. I'm completely different."

"It's no big dealio," Cindy told her. "I mean, Renfro is sort of sexy in that whole dominatrix-alpha bitch sort of way."

It took Sketchy and Max's minds about 2.9 seconds to process what Original Cindy had just said.

"Ugh." Max made a face.

"Ew!" Sketchy gagged.

"Hey, don't hate the big-fat lesbo!" Cindy chided them. "You're in _her _house, ain't cha?"

"Aww," Max said sadly, patting Original Cindy's shoulder. "You're not fat!"

"I know," Original Cindy grinned. "This Cindy is in perfect condition." A cell phone jingled and all three of them reached for their cell phones - well, Cindy and Max reached for their cell phones. Sketchy reached for the pager that Max had given him when Renfro refused to let him have another cell.

"It's me," Sketchy announced. "Can I borrow a phone?"

"Why don't you just use the one that's stuck to your head?" Max asked sarcastically. Sketchy glared at her.

"I gotcha covered." OC handed him her phone. "Make it short."

"No problem," Sketchy said, punching in a phone number, then pushing the green 'talk' button. He raised the phone to the un-cell-phoned side of his head. "Hey, Sky!" Cindy turned back towards Max.

"Look, there's only one thing that can help you stop turning into Renfro," she said.

Max rolled her eyes. "Sketchy lost his whole pot storage in the fire, OC. I don't know how that's going to help right now -"

"No," Original Cindy shook her head vehemently. "If you want to loosen up, then you just go find a person who's got tougher skin than you do."

"You mean like a drill sergeant?" Max asked sarcastically. "According to anyone on the team, I am the bossiest shit to hit the school since Renfro got permission from the school district to keep students overnight for detention."

Original Cindy laughed. "I've got just the guy. Just wait one second," she ran to the stairs and hollered up, "Alec! Let me borrow the Lamborghini!"

* * *

**A/N: Yeah, I know, I know. I totally mistreated you guys by not letting you know what's under Joshua's mask. Sorry, but I just couldn't help myself! (You'll find that I changed a part in chapter 14 about Sketchy's cell phone deal, too. Go back and read it to see.)**

**Review if you want to find out who's bossier than Max (or guess)! (If I get three or more reviews in the next two hours, I'll probably just post the next chapter today.)**


	16. Chapter 16

"Cindy," Max said cautiously. "Why are we going to Jam Pony?" she asked, recognizing the way to the building. Renfro often used the services of Jam Pony, and when Sketchy and Max were little, Renfro usually had to take them with her to run errands. Original Cindy whirled on Max.

"You ain't nevah been to Jam Pony before?" she asked. Max shook her head.

"I mean, I've got a friend who works there and Renfro used to drag us there so that she could get stuff delivered, but I've never seen the inside of it."

"Well," OC continued. "Original Cindy used to work there, and she can tell you there's a whole lotta bossy goin' down in that building."

"Why'd you quit?" Max asked. Cindy shrugged.

"I realized that freedom is a long and lonely path away from stagnation in that place... and I did it for a girl." She smiled. "Liesl. She was German - had this curly blonde hair and legs up to here," she gestured to her neck.

"We're entering the "too much share" zone, here, OC," Max said uncomfortably. Original Cindy grinned.

"Sorry. Anyways, I had to dump her anyways because she was starting to send moon-eyes towards Alec. Then _he _bonked her, sent her out the door and we never heard from her again. Well, we did... only on message machines."

Max wrinkled her nose. "Talk about 'all in the family'."

Cindy's eyes were glazed over. "Liesl," she thought outloud. "_Damn, _she was fine!"

"For the love of God, Cindy, keep your eyes on the road!" Original Cindy snapped back into reality, saw the bicycle messenger in front of her, and braked - all in one smooth, fluid split second. The brakes screeched, rubber burned, and still, the car smashed into the messenger's bike.

Max looked at Cindy in fear. She was starting to get an idea why Cindy had been banned from driving.

* * *

And then followed The Dance. 

"YOU COULD HAVE _KILLED _SOMEONE WITH THE WAY YOU WERE DRIVING!"

"_ME? _KILL SOMEONE? I HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL OVER THAT CAR OUT THERE! IT'S _YOU _WHO NEEDS TO SLOW DOWN AROUND THE CROSSINGS!"

"OH _HELL _NO!"

Renfro had gotten into a variety of car accidents during Max's life. She was only ever brought to justice for two of them.

She'd gotten into so many shouting fights with the victim, that Sketchy had began calling the whole process "The Dance". It started out with a cataclyst (the car accident), the rising tension (the three minutes after the car accident in which everyone was usually getting out of the car and looking at the damage), the sudden stillness (the shock and sometimes, whiplash), and then came the action (the actual shouting), soon followed by resolution.

Nevermind that The Dance was more reminicent of a bookplot, because Sketchy had completely skipped out on English classes for two or three years (which was why he was only _two _years younger than Max and still a frosh) - either way, The Dance was The Dance and it wasn't going to change unless Sketchy somehow found out what the plot of a book consisted of.

"NORMAL!" the blonde messenger shouted upon reaching Jam Pony, her poor, injured bike clutched in one fist.

"Oh for the love of Mike, what have you gotten yourself into now, CeCe?" The man named Normal asked.

Normal was a tall, extremely normal-looking guy - or he would be extremely normal. If he weren't in so much pleather, that was. He eyed her bike. "That's _three _bikes in _one _month!"

"She hit me!" CeCe screamed. "She fucking _hit _my bike -"

"Keep that cursing down," Normal ordered. "This isn't Kings of Comedy."

CeCe took a breath. "She _hit _my bike and now she's trying to worm her way out of it!"

"Were you hurt?" Normal asked.

"No," CeCe said.

"Well, then go deliver your packages on foot! Bip bip bip!" he shouted. He saw Cindy (who'd hung back to try and learn how to correctly lock the doors on the Lamborghini) enter the building. "And what brings you back to Jam Pony? You here to beg for your job back? Well, sorry, sister, we're full up." He turned to Max. "How can I help you?"

"I didn't come to beg for my good-for-nothin'-pays-like-shit job back," Cindy corrected him. "I came 'cuz _she_," she pointed to CeCe, "hit my car."

Normal closed his eyes and whispered something to himself. "I hope the both of you find a nice desk job some day where you won't hurt any of the unsuspecting population," he said outloud to them.

"Well, since that isn't for a long few years away," CeCe said. "Can you decide where the money's going over here?"

Normal, his eyes still tightly shut, asked, "What was Cynthia -"

"Cindy," Original Cindy corrected.

"What is _Cindy_, queen of everything, driving?" he asked.

"A lime green, 2005, juiced up Lamborghini," Original Cindy said, letting the words roll off of her tongue. Normal opened one eye.

"Lamborghini?" he asked. He looked at Max. "Lamborghini?" Max nodded in the affirmative. "As much as I hate to say it - she won," he pointed to Cindy.

"How - why - what the _hell_?" CeCe blurted. "How'd she win?"

"I've got a Lamberghini," Cindy said simply. "That's code for 'enough money to _sue _all your asses if I'm displeased'."

It was just common sense.

"And unlike some people," Normal said, "I've actually got a job to do. Hot run! 4th and 6th!"

"Got my name all over it," one guy said, grabbing the package as he walked by. "Hey, Cindy." He winked.

"Druid, don't _even _be playin'. You know Original Cindy don't be shootin' to that goal," Cindy said coolly.

* * *

"So," Cindy said, collapsing on the couch at the Big Tacky Castle Next Door after a day including car crashes and angry blondes. "You met the bossiest person ever." 

"He wasn't that bad," Max shrugged. OC's eyes bugged.

"_'Not that bad?'_ You obviously haven't worked with him from four to seven each night," she said, shaking her head. She perked up, getting a thought. "That's the perfect thing."

"What?" Max asked. "Getting a job?"

"Getting a job at _Jam Pony_," Original Cindy corrected her.

"But, I don't have time," Max said. "School, cheer-squad, bubble baths..."

"Alec!" OC called. "Max wants to tell you something important!"

"I'll go apply now," Max decided, hopping up from the couch. Cindy grinned.

* * *

**A/N: A lot of you (okay, like, two of you) were whining for Normal, so here he is. **

**Two quick things: 1) Someone _will _****be kissed in, oh, say the next five or six chaptors; and 2) I'm trying to decide on whether to make a Kill Bill! Dark Angel Style or a Sin City! Dark Angel style (and just torture the poor souls who are crying over the lack of canon in this story more). **

**They'll both be like this story, virtually the same plot as the movies only with Dark Angel characters, only the Sin City one will have a Max/Alec ship, and the Kill Bill onewon't have any ships. Help out with the deciding process, please, people! **

**Coming up: Finally! A phone call from Logan! (And if I get more than three reviews in the next two hours, then I'll post the next chapter today while I'm still at the library.)**


	17. Chapter 17

_Briiiing! Briiiiing!_

"Hello?" Max answered the phone wearily.

"Max!" a voice said from the other end.

"Logan?" Max asked, sitting up in bed. "How's school? How's life? How's everything? What's going on? Why are you calling at," she checked the alarm clock (Deck got her a new one), "half-past 'ass-crack in the morning'?"

"Early bird gets the worm, doesn't it?" Logan asked. He was always full of those weird, all-American sayings.

"Yeah, well this worm is dead tired." Max sighed, "I got a job."

"A job?" It sounded like Logan was about to say something, but all that came out was a small, "Oh."

"Yeah. Boss, I've discovered, is a slavedriver."

The door to her room opened and Alec poked his head through. His hair was wet.

"Shower's all yours if you want it," he informed her.

"Knock!" Max yelled, grabbing her alarm clock and launching it at him. Alec shut the door quickly and the alarm clock smashed against the door.

"Who was that?" Logan asked.

"Um... house guest," Max said quickly. Logan didn't need to know about recent happenings. "Sorry, Logan. But I'll have to call you back. I've got school today."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Logan stopped her.

"What?"

"Brin called me yesterday night."

"Oh," Max bit her lip. 'Recent events' included everything regarding the West Gillette Chameleons. "What did she say?"

"She told me everything."

"Everything?"

"Everything," Logan confirmed. "And I think I know just the guy you should call."

* * *

"He says the guy's name is Jonas Cale," Max explained to Cindy. "His uncle or something- super rich, really a bastard, but won ten trophies." 

"How do you win _ten _trophies?" Original Cindy asked. "There are only _four _years of high school."

"If you're not Joshua," Max added.

"And there's only one Joshua," Original Cindy said. "So is ya going to call him?" Max shrugged.

"Logan says it'll cost five grand."

Original Cindy hissed, waving her hand as if it were burned. "That's a lotta cheddar for a cheer." Max looked at OC significantly. Cindy made a face, understanding Max's expression. "Do I look like Mrs. Money-Bags to you?" she asked.

"You look like someone who has the words 'my brother has six cars' pasted across her forehead," Max said truthfully. "Sorry. 'Five cars and one motorcycle'."

Original Cindy rolled her eyes. "_Maybe _I can get a grand. My parents don't really favor the lesbian child."

"Great," Max said. "Now we've got four grand, and only a few weeks until Regionals."

"And a school full of yuppies," Original Cindy added. "Who else on the squad is getting the cake on a daily basis?"

* * *

"I'm _not _really on my parents' 'good child' list right now," Tinga said sadly. 

"They gave you an apartment and pay your bills, Tinga," Max said in disbelief.

Tinga held up a finger. "But that's as far as they'll go." She slammed her locker shut. "I've got to go. I've got chem lab, and Mr. Sandoval has a cow if we're late." As Tinga walked away, Max felt someone behind her. The sort of "sixth sense" felt, more than they jabbed her in the back as they were approaching.

She turned around.

"Hi, Max!" Mia Luccino, Sophomore Extraordinaire and Dougie Colantonio's on-again-off-again-sometimes-but-not-really-when-the-mood-hit-him-ex-old-current-girlfriend, smiled cheerfully at her.

Mia Luccino was one of the most economically endowed students in the school. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that Joshua's father owned the school, she probably would.

"Hi, Mia," Max said, moving to her locker to pack her backpack up.

"You don't have a seventh period either, right?" Mia asked, with a quizzical tilt of her head.

Well, Max did, but it was just study hall. Easily ditchable.

"I couldn't help but overhear what you were talking about with Tinga," Mia said.

"You eavesdropped?" Max assumed.

"Yes," Mia nodded. "And I think I might have a proposition for you. Come with me to the library."

"Could we make it the library down the street and three blocks over?" Max asked. "I'm kinda ditching."

* * *

**A/N: More Alec coming in the next chapter, don't worry.**

**Four votes for Sin City and one (sort of) vote for Kill Bill - well, I guess I'd better get crackin'. **

**Thanks to all the rest of you who reviewed out there! Remember, more reviewing means generally more writing on my part (you see, when you review, I generally get more feedback from the rest of the world than from my teachers and I tend to blow off more homework so that I can write for the wonderful people who review!) And as usual, if I get three reviews in the next two hours before my time runs out on the computer then I'll post the next chapter today! **


	18. Chapter 18

_"Mia Luccino?" _Alec demanded. _"The _Mia Luccino?"

Max shrugged. "Desperate times call for desperate measures."

_"Mia Luccino?" _Alec asked again. "You're whoring me out to _Mia Luccino?" _

"She's willing to pony up ten grand in cash - that's the choreographer, new uniforms, pom-poms, and my prom dress all rolled up into one neat little bag of hundreds," Max said.

"Is this what you've become?" Alec asked. "A pimp for your cause?" Max took a deep breath, then thought about it...

"Yes, Alec," she nodded. "This is what I've become. I'm a pimp." Alec groaned. "Oh, stop being such a baby! All you have to do is go out on _one date _with Mia! It's not as if it's the end of the world."

"That girl is insane and two years younger than me," Alec said. "She's like... Gogo Yubari, only not Japanese and - _two years younger!" _

"It won't kill you," Max told him. "Besides, Mia'll get you one way or another. She _always _gets her way."

"That's comforting," Alec said defeatedly. "One date, and on one condition." Max tilted her head, realizing just how close her fellow senior was to her.

"What's that?" she asked defiantly.

Alec leaned down until his face (his lips!) were only millimeters away from hers. "You gotta... stop throwing alarm clocks at me when I'm in the shower. I nearly got electrocuted this morning."

"I can't help it," Max said. "Five bedrooms, two bathrooms. It's just unnatural."

"Then use the master shower."

"The master shower?" Max asked. "You have a _master _bathroom?"

"Sure," Alec said, as if it were a well-known fact. "It's in my parents bedroom. I've used it once or twice to wash off after... well," he shrugged, "just after."

"Master bathroom," Max repeated. "I'll check into that, but tomorrow you and Mia go to the movies together, followed by a dinner at the 41 Club. Dress casualfor the occasion."

* * *

"Alec McDowell and Mia Luccino?" Kendra asked, wrinkling her nose. "Talk about the odd couple." 

"Odd couple that's getting me ten grand," Max corrected.

Kendra, for a change, wasn't in her office rabidly copying down any gossip she'd heard over the past week. Actually, she was in the gym with Max - who was on a day off from her Jam Pony workplace, watching the Reds (a common name for the school's basketball team - the Bloodhounds... they seemed to never feel pain, which was weird and implied the copious use of steroids) practice. Her fingers were kept busy by the laptop on her lap, she was writing an email to one of her new boyfriends.

"But I thought Alec was _your business_," Kendra said, her eyes glued to the screen. "And Mia - oooh," she grimaced.

"What?" Max asked, ignoring the jab at her.

"Mia's _Dougie's business_." Kendra looked over at Max, "Dougie's _big _business."

"So?" Max asked. "The kid's five-foot-three. I don't imagine he'll be beating up Alec any time soon."

"What about his thugs?" Kendra asked.

"He's, like, the bookkeeper of the school mafia," Max said. "Handles transactions from us to them."

"Bookkeepers get thugs," Kendra told her. "Everybody gets thugs when their dads are big time criminals. Thugs and really big houses. You've seen Mia's house, right? Place is a damn mansion!"

"Mia's dad's a criminal?" Max asked, surprised.

"Her step-dad is, anyways." Kendra sighed. "I swear, the divorce rate of the parents in this school is just embarassing."

"Who's her dad?" Max demanded.

"Um... some Brock guy or something," Kendra shrugged. "I heard his got his hands in everything this year. Drug dealing, kidnapping, arson, first-degree murder." _Brock_? Why did that name sound so familiar? "First-class asshole where kids are concerned, too," Kendra said. "I heard he ships them off to Middle East or something."

_"Gerhardt Bronck?" _Max nearly had a stroke. "That's Mia's dad?" Kendra nodded. Now she remembered why the name sounded so familiar. Renfro was always complaining to Deck about Bronck-this or Bronck-that; "Bronck wants me to testify that I saw him at the school picking up his daughter on Friday!", "Bronck's being charged of murdering his ex-wife... again. He's putting all of his money into his daughter's school account so that the police won't be able to get it."

"Yeah, he owns the 41 Club, didn't you know that?" Kendra asked. "Good thing Alec and Mia aren't going there. Bronck'd kill Alec, he's really protective of his daughter's virtue and all..."

"I gotta go," Max said quickly, jumping up from the bleachers.

"If you're going to the 41 Club, get me an onion blossom!" Kendra yelled. Her cell phone chirped and she answered it. "Hey, Walter..."

* * *

**Author's Note: Somehow, Gerhardt Bronck as a loving step-father is just a little to creepy for me to envisualize (is that a word?). **

**Please review! And as always, if I get three or more reviews within the next two hours then I'll post the next chapter today. **

**Coming up next: A night at the 41 Club! **


	19. Chapter 19

As mentioned before, the 41 Club was one of the ritziest places in town. It had been opened two years before as Mia's bat mitzvah present - a place where she could invite certain people to grub down and party, and exclude others. It was like a dream come true for the bubbly brunette.

The whole place was like a VIP room; where Gerhardt Bronck could oversee Generation X ruin their futures with underage drinking and substance abuse. But of course _Mia _never participated in any of this illicit activities.

"I need to get in there," Max said to the bouncer. "I was already in there, but... I had to go get something from my car."

"What's your name?" the bouncer asked, looking at his list.

"Um..." Max hesitated. "Rachel Glasser?" she tried. The bouncer raised an eyebrow, looking down the list. He nodded.

"Go ahead."

Max had no idea who Rachel Glasser was, or why the name was the first that came to her head, but she knew that Rachel wasn't getting into the club tonight. She also knew that she had to save Alec from whatever dastardly things Gerhardt Bronck did to the boys that dated Mia (and therefore compromised her virtue - as all boys were known to do).

Now, Max hadn't exactly been known to frequent the 41 Club, but she was sure she knew where Mia would be. Wherever Dougie was. And she was sure she knew where Dougie was (she had to tutor him last year in American literature) - wherever the girls were.

Dougie Colantonio - short in stature, narcoleptic, and a whole lot of geeky - was a sucker for female attention, much like any other man. And Mia was a sucker for him. And Alec was a sucker for not being electrocuted in the shower. It was like the food chain, or something.

"Mia!" Max said, catching sight of the brunette, clutching Alec's arm like it was a purse filled with... well, however much money it took to keep Mia happy. Mia turned around and smiled brightly.

"Max!" she shouted. Max weaved through the crowd to get to the pair, finally reaching them.

"Mia," she greeted again. "Why didn't you tell me that Gerhardt Bronck was your step-dad?" Max asked with a forced smile on her face.

"Ugh!" Mia scoffed. "I hate it when people define me by who my family is!"

"W-Who's Gerhardt Bronck?" Alec asked. "Am I supposed to know who he is?"

"He's my step-dad - "

"An internationally wanted criminal - "

"He opened this club for me - "

"Wanted in ten countries for charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, impersonating a priest, kidnapping, arson, theft, drug dealing, prostitution -"

"Kind of over-protective of me, but a really nice guy when you meet him!" Mia finished. "Right, Dougie?" she asked. Dougie, who'd paled when Max mentioned Bronck, nodded nervously.

"Y-y-yeah, he's a r-real nice guy," he said. When Mia turned her head, he shook his head fervently at Alec.

"There he is!" Mia announced happily, pointing at the third floor of the club. Max and Alec both looked up at the same time to see the man who might very soon be ending Alec's life (or shipping him off to be sold to horny and/or lazy rich people in other countries... something like that.)

As Gerhardt Bronck descended the steps, he really appeared to be something out of a Johnny Depp movie. He could have easily played Dean Corso, or (to a lesser extent) Edward Scissorhands. One of those demonic beings, anyways.

His hair, a very "fatherly" looking salt-and-pepper color, was cut so close to his head it appeared as if he were bald. His eyes, cool and calculating, were narrowed as he searched the crowds looking for his beloved step-Mia.

"Mia!" Max said pleadingly. "You _know _what happens to boys that date you!"

"Not really," Mia said innocently. "Dad keeps me out of the loop."

"You can guess!" Max hissed. Mia pouted.

"But Alec's _my _date! He has nothing to do with my dad!" she whined.

"But, if Bronck decides that Alec _does _have something to do with him, you can get him out of this, right?" Max asked. "You _always _get your way, remember?"

Dougie interrupted the conversation with a simple, "Nah. Her dad gets his way over her way any day."

Mia's lower lip sunk into an even deeper pout. "Well, that's not fair," she said. "How am I supposed to always get my way if my _dad _always gets his way?"

"I don't know," Max said truthfully. "I'd suggest you talk to your dad about that." She nodded towards Bronck who was only a few feet away by now.

"Hello, Mia," Bronck greeted curtly. He looked at Alec (who Mia was linked by the arm with) with distaste, as if he were a burnt noodle in a plate of pasta. "Who's this?" he inquired.

"This is Alec!" Mia introduced. Bronck's eyes narrowed at Alec and Alec gulped. Charming disposition or not, he had no chance against a _real _criminal.

Well, desperate times called for desperate measures, Max decided. She grabbed Alec by the back of the neck and dragged him down to her level - pressing her lips against his almost angrily.

Ten thousand dollars was deposited in a brown folder at Max's doorstep the next morning.

* * *

**Author's Note: I _told _you! **

**If I get four reviews or more (oooh, tricky) by five today, then I'll post the next chapter today. So keep those reviews coming!**


	20. Chapter 20

"Get out of there!" Original Cindy exclaimed, pulling the covers off of Max. Max shook her head 'no' and burrowed deeper into the sheets. "You're getting out today," Cindy told her. "You're getting out..." she pulled the second layer of comforter off, "you're going to school, then, you're going to meet-and-greet with Jonas Cale..." she ripped a top sheet off, finally getting closer to getting to Max, "then you're going to cheer and win a lot of trophies and call Logan and tell him what he's missing out on."

Max groaned. "Logan."

Original Cindy groaned. She picked up the last five layers of blankets and pulled them off revealing Max (in the same pajamas that she'd gone to sleep in seven days ago), curled up in her bed. "You can't live off of Baby Ruth candy bars forever, Max," she said to her.

"Watch me." Sometimes, Max had to admit, being the adopted daughter of the principal of her school _did _have its advantages. Like when she wasn't feeling up to facing the general population and stayed in bed for a week.

"What about regionals?" OC asked.

"We're the reigning champs. We're guaranteed a full-ride anyways."

"What about school?"

"Unimportant in the long run. Two words, Cindy: trust fund."

"What about Logan?"

"Can't stand the look he's going to give me."

"What about going out to a movie?"

Max looked up at Cindy questioningly. "What movie?"

"Something romantic-comedy-ish," Original Cindy wrinkled her nose. "Where the heteros prevail in the end." Max nodded weakly.

"That sounds good," she decided.

"Great. So get out of bed and get dressed." Cindy went to the door and screamed, "Alec! Take Max to a movie! I've got a project to do for Economics!"

Max paled. "No!"

* * *

It wasn't that Max felt necessarily sinful or anything. Not for kissing Alec, no. Firstly, she wasn't remotely Christian or Catholic or Zen or whatever the hell religion believed in kissing sins. 

She did feel a little guilty, though. Even if it was to make sure that Mia's dad thought that Mia wasn't being "compromised". What would Logan say? _He, _she knew, would never do such a thing. He would have found another way out - she should have found another way out!

"Well, well, well," Normal greeted from his desk. "If it isn't Miss Walks-In-A-Week-Late-For-Her-Shift-And-Didn't-Even-Get-A-Signature-On-Her-Last-Run! Welcome back!" he said sarcastically. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?" Max stopped on her way to the sitting area.

"Yeah. Am I getting benefits?" she asked bitterly.

"How many times have I told you people?" Normal demanded, ignoring her question. "Get a signature on every run! If you don't get a signature, you don't get pay!"

"Here you go, mon," Herbal Thought said, handing in a clipboard. Normal skimmed it.

"And here is one shining example!" he announced. "'Robert Marley' - see how it's written right on the signature line like it's supposed to be? That's what I'm talking about! Now get back to work! Bip-bip-bip!" he handed Max a clipboard. "Go back to your last run and get the signature."

"My last run? That was, like, ages ago!" Max complained.

"And if you'd come in on the next day, it would have only been a day ago," Normal said condescendingly. "Go! Bip! Bip!"

"I'm getting sick and tired of those 'bips'," Max muttered under her breath as she grabbed her bicycle and pedaled out to the address.

By the time Max had ridden all the way out to the address on the clipboard, she'd already switched around the situation in her head.

_Alec _was the bad guy for not knowing who Gerhardt Bronck was, obviously. _He _was the one who kissed her to save his own ass. It wasn't her fault. It couldn't be her fault. His fault. All his fault.

Max rung the buzzer and the gate to the huge (giant! humongus! incredibly large!) house clicked open. She went through, leaving her bike at the gate, and knocked on the door. It was answered by a maid (the house was so huge, it had to have maids; this one's work description was probably made up of "open the door" and she still made more than Max!)

"May I help you?" the maid asked.

"Yeah, I delivered a package here a few weeks ago and I forgot to get a signature," Max said, handing her the clipboard. The maid nodded.

"Mr. Berrisford's in his office. I'll be right back." She hurried away down the hall, giving Max time to look around the interior of the (really big) house. Sometimes when it came right down to it, nosiness surpassed courtesy. Besides, the maid wouldn't be back for at least ten minutes judging by the size of the house.

She stepped inside of the house, admiring the floor (wood - and waxed to perfection), the cieling (with a chandelier hanging down from it) the wood panelling on the wall, and the portrait at the end of the hall. Two parents and a kid - as usual in this type of home.

800,000 square foot house - two parents, one kid and a whole lot of domestic help (and maybe a pony, too). Max wondered if this was Mia's summer residence or something and they just rented it out to people during the year. The girl in the portrait _was _brunette, afterall.

Her cell phone rang. This was just _great_. She was roaming, and she sure wasn't going to waste any of her anytime minutes for a call that wasn't even out of her service provider in the first place.

Max clicked the "ignore" button and ran back down the hallway to the door as the maid's footsteps echoed in the house.

"Here you go," the maid said, handing her the clipboard.

"Thanks. You wouldn't happen to have a phone, would you?" Max asked.

"Sure. It's in the parlor down that hall," the maid told her, pointing to the right. Max smiled.

"Thanks again."

The living room (okay, _parlor)_ was about the size of the entire downstairs of Max's house, filled with decadent expensive Italian-looking furniture like leather sofas, a marble coffee table, and in one corner a small table with a telephone on it.

"Great!" Max travelled across the room and picked up the phone. She dialed Original Cindy's phone number and waited as the line connected.

"Max!"

"Alec, what the hell are you - why the hell - why didn't you call on _your _number?" Max demanded. "I would have known not to pick up!" there was a pause on the other line.

"Sorry," he said in a low voice. Low voices (from Max's previous experience, anyways) usually indicated one of two things - sadness or lust. Max hoped to God it was the former.

"Stop it!" Max said. "You're not allowed to do that!"

"Do what?"

"Make me feel sorry and guilty and - just stop it!" Max sighed. Bad aura in - oooh, grr! She meant 'bad aura OUT; good aura IN'. It was a yoga-Chinese-feng-shui sorta thing. Jondy taught her it. "What'd you call me for?"

"You have to - " there was the sound of yelling in the background. "Get back home _now_."

"I can't, genius, I'm _working_," Max hissed. "It's that thing that you do when you're not filthy stinkin' rich and spoiled with six cars -"

"Five, and - " a crash. "_Really_, you have to get back."

"What's going on?" Max asked.

"Y-Y-Your parents," Alec whispered fearfully. "They've gone _insane_."

"So, what's new?" Max said sarcastically.

"They found Sketchy smoking some of his back-up stash with some girl."

"What girl?"

"I don't know! Some girl!"

"What girl?"

"Max, I only have memory enough to keep track of the last three girls _I've _do - dated. What makes you think I can really remember Sketchy's conquests?" Alec asked. "Linda or Lisa or something like that," he said as a pathetic attempt to remember.

_"Lydia_?" Max asked.

"Uh..."

"Blonde? Blue eyes? Built like a smaller Zack?"

"Yeah, that's the one!" Alec said.

"Dammit!" Max swore. "What's happening now?"

"Uh..." there was another pause. "Lydia and Renfro are sort of grappling on the floor... Sketchy's just sprayed them down with Febreeze to try to get them to stop... now Renfro's top's all wet and you can see her - "

"Alec!" Max yelled. "God, enough with the details. Is Cindy there?"

"She's trying to pull Lydia off of Renfro. That Lydia-chick's got some guns for a sophomore, though." Maybe Cindy wasn't a match for such a psychotic tenth-grader.

"I'll be there as soon as possible," Max promised. "There's mace in my room under my pillow - use it in case Lydia goes towards the knives and tell Sketchy to call the cops."

"Mace - pillow - knives - cops - got it!" Alec repeated in a rush. "Hurry, bye."

"Bye, Alec."

* * *

**A/N: Like I said, Sketchy + trouble OTP.**

**Review if you want to find out what happens to Sketchy next chapter! If I get more than three reviews by five, then I'll post the next chapter today. **


	21. Chapter 21

It's a commonly known fact that "what goes around comes around", which meant that Lydia, super-freak extraordinare, had been going around for a _long_, _long _time.

"I'll get you back!" Lydia screamed as the police hauled her off. "I'll get you back you sons of bi - "

As per cliche, the police slammed the door on her just as the curse word was about to come out of her mouth. Renfro rounded on Sketchy. But instead of the a scream-o-rama -- as would have happened in usual families, she sighed (Max could have sworn she heard the words "bad aura OUT; good aura IN" come out in that sigh), wiped her hands on her black executive suit, and sighed again.

And then she tore the cell phone off of Sketchy's head.

If that wasn't enough to kick Sketchy's "a joint a day" habit, then nothing (short of total paralysis and isolation) would.

* * *

Very soon, it was the day that Jonas Cale was set to arrive on campus. And arrive he did - in style. 

Cale was driven up in a stretch-Hummer by a chauffeur. He exited the vehicle with a martini in his hand as the assorted teens of the cheer squad (who'd been awaiting his arrival) stood up as he approached.

Old, graying and undoubtedly just going to sit there while he ordered his flying monkeys around the football field; Jonas Cale surveyed his surroundings carefully as he stirred his olive around in his martini glass.

Max decided to speak up. "Thanks for coming, it's a real - "

"Quiet," Jonas said quickly. Max shut her mouth immediately. "I want all of you in a line, quickly, now; I do not have time to waste on your insipid activities."

"Dude, we're in the parking lot," Brin reminded him. At Cale's glare, she rolled her eyes and said sarcastically, "Sir, yes, sir!" with a mock salute and everything. They all formed one line along the curb and Cale started at the beginning - Jondy.

"You," he said, "you have strong ankles and calves - I presume you do yoga? Pilates? One of those Indian things?" Jondy nodded.

"Yes, sir!" she said happily.

"You have low self-esteem," Cale said. "Put your hands at your side and not in front of yourself. And your trust in those crap exercises is definitely a contribution to the flab around your legs and arms." He placed a hand on Jondy's shoulder. "I want all of that flab gone by regionals." He moved onto Syl and Jondy brushed off her shoulder with an angry look on her face. "You, what is your name?" Cale asked.

"Syl," Syl answered.

"Silly Syl," Zane supplied.

"Shut up, Zane!" Syl snarled.

"You're spending too much time with your boyfriend and not enough time practicing," Cale evaluated. Syl flushed (and a little further down the line, Krit suddenly found the cement extremely interesting). "Pick one extracurricular activity and stick to it; or at least _try _to cover those hickeys." He moved on to Brin. "You're too cocky. Join the army or go someplace where people will call you 'maggot' every three words - it will help." Brin looked at Max and shook her head, wrinkling her nose up as Cale passed Zane, Zack, Krit and a few others. "Male cheerleaders. Enough said there."

He got to Cindy and winced. "Child, please do something with that hair, it's hideous and your make-up is terrifying." Max quickly covered Original Cindy's mouth right before any of the sassy remarks on her tongue could escape, so all that came out were muffled words. "And you," Cale stopped at Max. "I assume that you are the captain, which means you will need more help than anyone on this team." Max opened her mouth and was about to say something when Cale shushed her, putting one finger up. "Just listen. Listen, and learn."

He took another step, then went back to Max. "And please have the decency to blend your eyeshadow correctly."

The rest of the comments were generally mild (Tinga shrugged off the one about her having "too much ass and not enough boobs"), until, of course, Cale got to Joshua.

"What is... this?" Cale asked.

"Joshua," Joshua answered. "This... Joshua."

"Well, Joshua," Cale looked up and down the suit. "Why isn't your head off when you are talking to a superior?"

"Can't take mask off," Joshua shrugged.

"Why not?" Cale asked.

"Because his _face might get dusty_," the team chorused together. Cale looked from the rest of the team, to Joshua again.

"That's the stupidest excuse I've ever heard," he announced. "What do you have under there, anyways? Hair?" he tried to peer under Joshua's mask, but Joshua pushed him away with one paw.

"Don't think so, Mr. Cale," Joshua said patiently.

"Fine," Cale straightened himself up and returned his gaze (piercing, but less piercing then Donald Lydecker's patented "make them fold" gaze) to the squad. "I have until next Monday to make this... pathetic excuse for a team into a squad that will _wow_," he struck a pose, holding his martini safe above his head, "and _awe,_" another pose, "the audience. So, over the next few days you will train harder than ever, starting with the first step."

"And what would _that _be?" Brin asked sassily.

"I want to think of what you all had to eat today," Cale said, pacing along next to them. "Now, cut that in half - for some of you, _Tinga, Jondy, Cindy_, make that fourths. This is called a diet and everyone will be starting one today." He gulped down the rest of his martini (olive included) and threw it down on the ground where it shattered.

"Why do we _all _need to go on a diet?" Syl asked. "My dietician says I need to gain weight."

"My parents don't condone fasting unless it's for religious purposes," Jondy alerted him.

"My prescription drugs are making me gain weight," Tinga told him. "Doc Carr says I have to take them every day otherwise the world will meet the Tinga Smith that only the paramedics and the Seattle Special Weapons and Tactics squad has seen so far."

"My momma cooks soul food," Original Cindy said simply. This was a lie and Max knew it. Original Cindy's personal chef, a sassy Creole man appropriately named Bling made her soul food. Alec had a personal chef as well, only she was the woman who worked at an AM-PM downtown and supplied him with his essentials: pork rinds, Bolt soda, candy bars and (when he really sucked up to her), scotch. The woman at the AM-PM got paid a great deal less than Bling - who could spread his hourly wage out on his king-sized bed and roll around in it when the mood hit him to do so.

"These are all excuses!" Cale ranted. "Excuses are used by sissies! Which means that you - all of you are... sissies!" And if there was something cheerleaders hated being called (especially male cheerleaders), it was "sissies".

Luckily, the silence that followed that was only punctuated by the sounds of Zack cracking his knuckles menacingly, was broken by the roar of a performance engine as a red sports car drove into the parking lot. One of the tinted windows rolled down and Alec stuck his head out.

"Hey, Cindy! Mom and Dad want a word!"

"What's it about?" OC yelled back.

"I dunno!"

"Did they sound mad?" Original Cindy yelled. "Did they mention a girl named Veronica?"

"No!" Alec shouted. "On both accounts. They sounded really happy, actually!"

"Oh," Original Cindy grinned. "Okay! I'll be right there!" Her smile widened when she saw the look on Cale's face.

"You better not," Cale said dangerously.

"Later, dickhead. I'll see you tomorrow," Cindy said - quite guilt free. She climbed into Alec's car and the car zoomed away. Cale watched the car become a red dot in the distance for a few minutes before he turned back to the squad.

"Let's get started."

* * *

**Author's Note: Jonas Cale, who always seems to have food in his alcohol. **

**About Sin City! Dark Angel Style and Kill Bill! Dark Angel Style: the final pairings are in. Sin City! Dark Angel Style will be heavily Max/Alec, Lydecker/Somebody I Can't Name Just Yet, Syl/Krit, and somewhat Syl/Someone Else. Kill Bill! Dark Angel Style will be past! Max/Ben and mediumly Max/Logan. Kill Bill! Dark Angel Style will also have _a lot _of character death (see the movie, you'll know what I mean). **

**... maybe I'll make a second Kill Bill! Dark Angel Style version with past! Max/Logan instead of Max! Ben... whatever, it depends. **

**Review me or I'll get sad and I won't know why...**


	22. Chapter 22

Max slammed the door as she walked into the house.

"Max!" Original Cindy exclaimed happily, standing up from the sofa where she'd been on the phone (probably with her parents. They were never around.) She sat back down and wrinkled her nose in disgust. "What's that smell?"

"That stupid bastard worked us _raw_," Max growled, sitting down on the sofa next to OC. Original Cindy scooted over a little bit. "Jondy started crying," she said offhandedly.

"What about Joshua?"

"He seemed pretty good about everything, considering we've got the choreographer from hell," Max shrugged. "Zack just about went ballistic and almost dropped Brin on the ground."

"Too bad he didn't," Original Cindy said with a grin. "And, I'm sorry, boo, but could you _please _take a shower? You smell nasty."

"You're not exactly rosy yourself, OC," Max said indignantly. "And," she got up from the sofa, "I'm only going upstairs because I want to call Logan."

"Whatever you need to tell yourself, boo," Cindy said, picking up a magazine and beginning to read it.

"What'd your parents want to talk to you about anyways?" Max asked.

"Oh, right," Original Cindy grinned even more. "Mom and Dad gave me my car privileges back."

"What?" Max asked, suddenly deadly serious. "They sent you back your license?"

"And the registrations for all of my cars," Cindy beamed. "And my insurance card. And the license plates... the taillights..."

"You know," Max interrupted her. "I think I need to go have some alone time. Maybe go, you know, heal torn muscles."

"Go ahead," OC gave her her blessing. "I'm fixin' to go down to the Blowfish Tavern tonight..."

* * *

Under any other circumstances, Max wouldn't have done what she was about to do; but some people were just too dangerous to have behind a wheel. Original Cindy was one of those people. She gathered up all of her courage... 

and knocked on Alec's door.

The door opened and Alec - who always made it seem as if he were up to something when he came out of his room - peeked through the crack.

"Let's take a walk," Max said.

"Are you going to take out a whack on me?" Alec asked cautiously.

"If I were going to kill you, I wouldn't go about it in such an obvious way. More like, I'd," Max shrugged, "hire a cute blonde to slip something in your drink when you were at a club... have a few gangsters drag you out into the alley and then you'd meet the business end of a .45."

Alec stared blankly at her. Clearly unamused.

"I'll be right out."

* * *

"They gave her her car keys back?" Alec blurted. "Why would they do that? Why would the state of Wyoming - " he broke off. 

"What?" Max asked.

"The court order - maybe it only applied while we were still living in Wyoming," he realized.

"A _court order _came when she wrapped a car around a pole?" Max inquired. Alec shook his head.

"No, no, Dad and Mom took away her license when she wrapped a car around a pole," Alec corrected. "After that, she ran away with her girlfriend Diamond - right after Diamond went insane and went after her pops with a shovel and a butcher knife, of course - and Cindy may or may not have been the instigator of a," he coughed slightly, "twenty-four car pile-up in the middle of the freeway. Seventeen injured, ten critical, a young mother gave birth in a taxi and a man died of a panic attack as he waiting to be plied out with the Jaws of Life..." Alec shook his head. "Original Cindy was on house-arrest for a few weeks after that, then the good old officers of the law took away the plates on all of her cars."

"And now they're back," Max said fearfully. "We _need _to do something to keep Cindy off the road."

"No can do," Alec told her. "Cindy's first love is flat-ass white women - preferably naked and covered in strategic places with honey, chocolate or whipped cream. Her second love is cars and seeing how fast they'll go."

"What's her third love?" Max asked.

"Diamond," Alec shrugged. "But we don't have to worry about that for a while - if she looses her last appeal, then we won't have to worry about it ever. She's over eighteen, they can officially trial that bitch as an adult." His smirk disappeared, "But that's not the point!" he said quickly. "How are we going to stop Cindy from wrecking another car? We're in Seattle! There are slightly bigger buildings here than in Gillette!"

"Not to mention the Space Needle," Max said, seeing the building off in the horizon. "Oh God - what's going to happen to the Needle?"

"Same thing that happened to the water tower in Gillette, probably," Alec said dryly. He gestured with his hands - a small explosion. "Fwoom!"

"But she won't drive with her license plates?" Max asked.

"No," Alec confirmed. "She's never been stopped by the police in a car." Max nodded and stopped their impromptu walk.

"Okay, I've got it."

* * *

"Where are they?" Original Cindy yelled, picking up pillows and tossing them over her shoulder. "Where are they?" 

"Where are what?" Max asked, tilting her head in a way reminiscent of Mia's habit.

"My plates!" Cindy shouted. "I was going to take them to Biggs so he could stick them back on!"

"Why the rush?" Alec asked from where he was sitting watching television. "Did a justice of the peace grant you and Diamond conjugal visits?"

"I was going to go get food from a drive-through!" Original Cindy whined, collapsing on the sofa. "I haven't been to a drive-through in..."

"Four months, one week, three days..." Alec muttered. "Since the McDonalds incident, that is."

"The McDonalds thang don't have nothin' to do with this!" Original Cindy yelled, getting back up. "I'm gettin' my plates back, one way or another!" she roared, stomping out of the room. Max grinned at Alec.

"No she's not," she whispered happily.

A famous, millionaire author once said that there were some things you can't share without ending up (sort of) liking each other. Stealing a lesbian's license plates and hiding them in order to prevent said lesbian from terrorizing poor pedestrians (and mailboxes, and bicyclists, and other car owners... and some McDonald's employees) is one of them.

* * *

**Author's Note: A cookie to whoever knows the famous, millionaire author. **

**99 reviews, you guys are so great! Only, like, one more review and I'll have a hundred reviews which I never thought I'd have, so somebody DOOOO IIIIIT. You know you want to! Review and make my year so then I can go brag about it to my friends who have no idea what fanfiction or Dark Angel is!**

**DOOOOOO IIIIIT. DOOOOO IIIIT. **


	23. Chapter 23

"Up, down, left, right!" Cale ordered from his lawn chair on the football field. "Arms up, people! Arms up! Get that girl up higher, Thompson!"

"My _name _is Jondy," Jondy yelled angrily; her legs wobbled a bit in Zack's hands. Sometimes, even the docile Jondy got pulled to her limits.

"It's five o'clock," Brin said, looking at her watch as Krit put her back down. "Practice is officially over, and I've got a violin class at five thirty."

"I've got piano lessons," Syl informed him.

"Swim team practice in, like, five minutes," Zack said. "Me and Zane are both on the team."

"Joshua and Jondy have yoga class at five thirty," Joshua told Cale. More and more, the others volunteered their information. Max herself had work.

"I don't care if you have a stick up your ass and need to get to the emergency room!" Cale roared.

"You mean like you do?" Brin asked under her breath.

"You're going to practice until it's midnight if I say so," Cale said. "You're going to perfect this damn cheer and you're going to like it."

"He's. An. Idiot," Brin said, kicking off her shoes and pulling off her track pants in the locker room thirty minutes later. "'I don't care! I don't care! I don't care!'" she mimicked Cale in a ridiculous high-pitched voice.

"I - " Jondy pouted in defeat. "I see what you mean. He's always saying everything I do is sissy," she said, tying the laces on her sneakers and stuffing all of her clothes in the locker.

"Exactly!" Brin exclaimed. She pulled the jeans she'd been wearing earlier on and stood up again. "And what sucks is that we can't fire him because then we'll have no cheer! No cheer means no regionals; no regionals means no nationals and no nationals means no trophies and no trophies means that we've got a significantly smaller pool of colleges that want us because _everyone _knows they want _winners!" _

"Not like we actually study, right?" Syl said under her breath.

"Exactly!" Jondy agreed. "Wait..."

"Doesn't matter anyways," Brin shrugged. "You know we're going to lose, right? I mean how the hell could we win with a cheer like that? It's about as probable as Joshua passing his exit exams."

"Better hope he doesn't hear you say that," Syl commented. "Josh's six-foot-five and made of all muscle under that suit. He could rip you apart."

"Point is," Brin said, stuffing all of her gear into her bag. "Prepare to actually _try _on our exams because none of us are going to get the scholarship we want with the way we're going." She shook her head sadly. "Hope Maxie's not going to have a breakdown or anything like in the eighth grade when we got last place - "

There was a slam from the other side of the lockers and all three girls peaked around them to see Max leaving the room in what was basically a dead run. Tinga looked over the top of the lockers at them.

"Nice job, Brin. I've never really met anyone who could tear life dreams down like you can," she said bitingly before disappearing on the other side again.

* * *

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, Maxie," Alec stopped Max once she'd gotten out of the locker room.

"Go away," Max snapped. "I just want to get home."

"Dude, we live in the same house. Eventually you're going to hear what I have to say," Alec said. "But, really, now's the time I need to ask this."

"What?" Max asked.

Alec peered around the corner of the building, then looked back at Max. "Those Red guys... how fast are they?"

"What the hell kind of stupid question is that?"

"Just the hell kind that's either going to save my life or severely shorten it," Alec told her. "How fast are they?"

Max shrugged. "I've seen one of them chase down a moving train - but he was a senior and that was, like, three years ago and he died about two minutes after that. I think his brain exploded or something."

"Good to know," Alec said nervously, still looking around shiftily.

"What'd you do?" Max asked, with her hands on her hips. Alec didn't answer. "I know you did something so you might as well 'fess up."

"It's just," Alec shrugged. "Those Red guys are awful protective of their uniforms, aren't they?" He turned around again to glance around the building, then he hurriedly started walking away. "Want a ride home?"

Max looked around the building to see the Reds - all sixteen - with their usual blue, gold and white uniforms dyed _pink. _

"Alec!" she shouted.

"Is that a 'yes'?"

* * *

"Why'd you do that?" Max asked when they were both safely settled in Alec's black SUV and about three streets away from the school and counting.

"It was a bet, all right?" Alec bit his lip. "Biggs won me in poker - first time _ever _- and he told me that he wanted me to dye the uniforms of the school's basketball team bright pink, then take a picture."

"So if Biggs told you to jump off a bridge, would you?" Max inquired sarcastically.

"Hey, we're talking about completely different topics here," he pointed out.

"Who _is _Biggs, anyways?" Max asked; she'd heard OC bring up the name once or twice before, but usually in the context of 'Biggs - that damn asshole'. "And what is this mysterious power he has over you?"

"Oh." Another shrug. "Biggs fixes my bike for free. That's how he's got so much power over me."

Max's attention was caught. "Biggs fixes your bike?"

"Yep."

"So he would know where to get a good bike for cheap, right?"

Alec chuckled. "Biggs is a fixer-upper. People sell him bikes, he fixes them and sells them to other people. He _gets _good bikes for cheap."

"Huh..."

* * *

**Ending Note: WHOOOO! More than one hundred reviews! Ohhh, life is sweet when you are writer. **

**So, sorry for the long wait with the chapter (well, longer than usual. I like to get them out every few days). There were a few technical difficulties, but expect the next chapter pretty soon. **

**I'm working on pictures for the characters (inspired by HoneyX5452's pics) and trying to figure out how to put them up on a journal, so those should be up soon. In the mean time, keep reviewing! It gives me more fire to actually finish the chapter I'm on! **


	24. Chapter 24

Crash Car Garage's name didn't really inspire much hope in the hearts of anyone who _wasn't _a loyal follower of the all-mighty life-giver (to cars, at least), Dix. Max didn't know who Dix was, or why he was an all-mighty life-giver to cars - she just knew what the sign told her.

_Crash Car Garage,  
__Home of the All-Mighty Life Giver (to Cars, at Leest), **DIX**_

"Who's Dix?" Max asked, getting out of the car.

"The owner," Alec shrugged. "More or less; come on."

"They spelled 'least' wrong," Max noticed idly as Alec tugged her into the shop.

"Luke isn't really the best at spelling. I mean, that's why he's working in a car garage and not a law firm, right?" he smirked at her, pushing the door open and holding it open. Alec went in after her. "Luke!"

A tiny bald man with nearly egg-white skin and a hockey mask covering his face, looked from the desk where he'd been doing a crossword, to Alec.

"Alec!" he greeted happily.

"What's with the mask?" Alec asked. "Rob another bank?"

"Nah, I'm trying out Halloween costumes," Luke said. He looked past Alec to Max. "Who's this?" Alec gently pulled Max in front of him.

"Max is here to see Biggs about a bike," Alec said simply.

"He's training," Luke said.

"So?" Alec asked.

"Well, traditionally, training sessions are uninterrupted. Like school," Luke explained in monotone, as if he'd said the same speech about a million times (and probably to the same person). Alec peered behind the counter.

"Dix!" he yelled. "I've got someone to go see Biggs!"

"Go ahead!" came the reply. Alec was about to go into the garage when Dix continued, "And it better not be another chick!" he stopped and looked at Max.

"Put your hood up. Dix's only got one eye, he won't see the difference," he muttered, pulling her into the workshop by the hand. When he opened the door, loud rock music boomed from inside of the room.

"Biggs!" he shouted. Max shut the door behind her. "Biggs!" Alec went over to the stereo from which the music was originating and unplugged it. The guy who was working on the car immediately whirled around and pushed up his eye-mask.

"Alec!" he greeted happily. "Buddy, man! Why didn't you tell me you were here?"

Biggs was a darkly handsome guy, around Alec's age, maybe a year or so older, with spiky black hair and features that told of a generally hispanic heritage. The 'trainee' next to him was a short blond boy, he couldn't have been more than thirteen.

"This is Dalton. He wants to learn how to fix bikes so he can get chicks!" Biggs said loudly. Max had a feeling that Biggs was a bit deaf from listening to his music so loud while working on motorcycles.

Biggs finally seemed to notice Max.

"Hey, look! It's working!" he said happily. "Dalton, start talking about transmissions or something. It makes them think you think they're smart."

"I'm here. To get. A bike," Max said slowly, and loudly. She was starting to see why Alec and Biggs were friends.

"A bike?" Biggs yelled. "Then you've come to the right place!"

"What about that one?" Max asked, eyeing the bike that Biggs had just been working on. Biggs shook his head.

"Nah, you don't want the Ninja. It's such a powerful bike, that it's practically got 'no girlies' painted across the side," Biggs said, admiringly.

"Great, make it a challenge," Alec said in a low voice.

"Shut up!" Max ordered. She looked pleadingly at Biggs. "How much for it?"

"Nuh-uh," Biggs said. "I'd never forgive myself if that pretty face were messed up."

"How much?" Max demanded again.

"--------," Biggs said.

"--------?" Max asked in disbelief. "No way. You've gotta be kidding."

"It's the price you'll have to pay for messing with my heart," Biggs said soulfully.

"How about I mess with your face and see how much it is then?" Max threatened, advancing on Biggs.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," Alec said, stepping in between the two. "Let's not go too far, okay? Dalton, go get some donuts. This might get ugly and you're kind of young to see this type of bloodshed." Dalton shrugged and went to get a few donuts from the main office and Max bit her bottom lip to stop from smiling as she got an idea.

"Allllec," she fake-whined. "You got your allowance yesterday, right?"

"Alec, don't fold, dude!" Biggs shouted. "She's using her wily feminine charms on you! Don't fold, man! Don't fold!"

"And," Max continued, approaching Alec. She wrapped her arms around his neck (the things she'd do for a good bike - yeesh). "I know you _couldn't _have spent that _entire _allowance on pork rinds and scotch, right?" He swallowed dryly.

Thirty minutes later, Max and Alec were speeding back to the house in Alec's pimped out SUV, with Max's shiny new baby in the back.

"You know, Biggs is a really great friend," Max said happily. "I mean, when you offered to front the _whole _bill like that, he totally lowered the price, like, twenty thousand bucks."

A light sputtering sound was Alec's response.

"Speaking of which, want to go shopping next Saturday?"


	25. Chapter 25

Regionals sort of snuck up on the team just as they were beginning to settle into a new era of living:

Brin had to stay home and watch several cousins that had shown up to visit her father. So, she was far too tired to think up snarky comments during practice.

Tinga was actually _less _irritable, now that she'd found a more permanent babysitting situation for Case, her kid.

Max could now relieve stress by going for a ride on her (awesome) new Ninja. So, she was much more optimistic about the future. Not to mention she'd recieved yet another phone call from Logan! He told her that he was doing well in school, but he had a lot of homework and that was why he couldn't get around to calling her a lot.

Jondy had started karate lessons, and had taken to the martial arts very well considering that she was a pacifist. Cale had gotten the hint when, after one bad comment, Jondy kicked him across the room. So, she was a little bit feared.

Joshua had actually taken off his suit (he requested that he be in an empty room with no windows at the time) and gave it to Jondy to wash. So, he was much nicer smelling.

Krit and Syl split up and were sullen and down-trodden for two days and refused to work with each other. Then, after trying out the whole "seeing other people" dealio, they decided to get back together. The entire team was better off with this arrangement.

Zack had finally _gotten _a girlfriend - which meant that he was more relaxed all around and stopped quoting rules all the time.

Original Cindy had gotten a girlfriend as well - a college girl that she referred to only as "my Lickety-Boo". She didn't spend too much time around the house these days.

And Zane..., well, Zane had recieved something that he called the "Komodo 3000" for his birthday, and was very happy and a little bit twitchy. He muttered a lot about "big boom"s and the gymnasium, too. Max made a mental note to keep an eye on him and his explosives; it wouldn't do any good to cheer for the basketball team if they didn't have a gym to cheer _in. _

All of this changed when Regionals came around. Suddenly, no one had time to do _anything _other than practice. And occasionally, they would sleep, too; at least everyone other than Jondy and Max did. Sleep wasn't a priority when you drank Red Bull like water. Jondy had even poured some of the energy drink into a spray bottle so that she could spray it into her mouth during practice.

This only became a problem when, one day after practice, Max jogged up the bleachers to meet Alec. He had taken to watching the practices with Joshua - up in the bleachers with a giant bag of pork rinds and a liter of Bolt soda.

"So?" she asked, still somewhat running in place. She'd drinken two energy drinks with her breakfast, one with lunch, and one right before practice. She was feeling a little bit... hyper?

Brin was climbing up the stairs behind her.

Alec looked up at Max; he'd been staring at Jondy doing one of her yoga positions down on the floor.

"Huh?"

Brin tapped Max on the shoulder and Max turned around. "Yeah?" she asked, still hopping from foot to foot.

"Max, I'm going to tell you something, and I don't think you'll like it," Brin said.

"Yeah? What?" she inquired. Brin sighed.

"You have a problem, Max," she said sadly. Max looked at her quizzically. "One might call it... an addiction."

"What are you talking about?" Max asked, halting her bouncing for a moment. She still felt like she was jumping out of her skin. With a resentful expression, Brin held up a 12-can box of Red Bull. Max grabbed it and shook it. "There's nothing in here!" she exclaimed, tossing the empty box aside. "Where'd you get that?"

"Your locker," Brin told her. "I remember you buying it at seven-eleven on Wednesday morning. You emptied it out in three days - that's _not _normal." She held up something from her backpack. "I also found this... untouched can of Kabbalah energy revitalizer."

Max shook her head fervently. "Krit gave me that. I don't like the way it tastes," she complained. "So, what'd you think of practice?" she asked again, turning to Alec.

"Max..."

"It's _not _an addiction!" Max said loudly. "I can stop any time I want to!" She frowned. "How'd you get into my locker, anyways?"

Brin shrugged. "Joshua," she said simply, by way of explanation.

"Oh," Max nodded. She understood perfectly. Joshua was known perform miracles on occasion. Like the time Zane got shot in the eye with a paintball gun and Valerie was almost about to pick a replacement from the _B-squad..._

Needless to say, Joshua visited Zane's house on Wednesday afternoon, and Zane was back at practice on Friday with both eyes working perfectly.

"Somehow I doubt that you can really stop," Brin said. "A smoker never really quits."

"And a Brin never stops being annoying!" Max snapped. "_I _can totally stop drinking Red Bull - you watch!"

"I'm watching."

"Yeah, damn right you better watch!" Max yelled. "I'm going cold turkey off Red Bull for... for..." she thought for a moment. "Two days -" Brin rolled his eyes. "Three!" she snorted. "Fine," Max paused. "I'll kick Red Bull until after Regionals and that'll show you!"

"If you say so," Brin shrugged.

"I do say so!" Max shouted. Brin raised both eyebrows briefly, then jogged back down the steps. Max turned back to Alec. "My brain sort of blanked out the past few minutes. Can you tell me what just happened?" Alec sighed, but began to explain.

Max listened quietly for a few seconds, before...

"Holy shit!"

* * *

A/N: Yes, yes, reviews are very nice. Since you people are not in Christmas-card distance, send reviews for presents!

(Also, yes, I will have to be taking finals in about a week or two, so there might be a halt in chapters over the holidays. Blame that darn American school system.Sorry!)


	26. Chapter 26

Whatever Original Cindy had been expecting when she walked into Regionals was immediately banished when she set sight upon the place.

There were dozens of them. Possibly hundreds of them.

White girls in short skirts, belly-baring tops with their straight hair in ponytails and clean white sneakers on their feet. At least 60 of them had blue eyes and about half of them were blondes with a distinct lack of junk in the trunk. It was like a beautiful, white chocolate dream.

Cindy crossed her fingers and prepared to approach one particularly cute blonde who was doing her stretches on the floor. Max held out an arm to stop her.

"Whoa girl," Max said in a low voice. "Cheers are our first priority. You can prove your animal magnetism later."

Original Cindy cussed under her breath, but abided by her boo's rules and followed the rest of the squad through the throng of white chicks.

After a few hours (which soon turned into days!) of Red Bull-deprivation, Max was looking a little rough around the edges. Sure, she was getting five hours of sleep at night -something that she hadn't done since the eighth grade when she discovered the life-giving elixer - but she was craving the stuff like an addict craved his D.O.C., or like Original Cindy was craving one of those white girls.

"So, are your parents coming?" Max asked conversationally.

"I don't know if Alec's coming," Original Cindy told her.

"That's not what I -"

"You were thinkin' it," OC shot back. "And to answer your actual question: no. Ma's in Germany fixin' up some couple with a nice new life, and Dad's in Australia with makin' nice with the Prime Minister."

"What do your parents _do, _OC?" Max asked.

"Hell if I know, but it keeps us in skittles and beer, don' it?" Cindy grinned and Max smiled back.

"Got that right."

"What about your family?" Cindy asked. Max shrugged.

"Renfro had a business meeting. Sketchy said something about Druid having hook-ups in Venezuela, and Deck doesn't like coming. But it's okay," she said with a smile. "I've got a back-up family. Right, Josh?" Joshua, who'd been tagging along behind them, raised his arms and howled.

"Max has back-up family!" he yelled, attracting the attention of several other squads.

"Who?" Original Cindy asked.

* * *

Joshua Sandeman had a very small, loving family. Or at least one-fourth of it was loving. 

Dr. Sandeman was a tiny, balding gentleman with a kind heart and very small teeth who hailed from somewhere in South France... or at least that's what the pictures that Joshua had shown Max seemed to show. She'd never actually met the man that raised Joshua from when he was a small mascot (he mascotted for Max's old elementary school squad - the Panthers) and his costume was only fifty pounds. Joshua told lots of stories, though.

His wife had died sometime ago, but from what pictures Max had seen, she was somewhat of a midget as well. It was hard to imagine how two parents who barely reached five-one managed to create Joshua - a creature who towered over the Reds at an amazing 6'8 and seemed to be made out of pure muscle.

Joshua Sandeman was the eldest child out of three. The middle child being, none other than Ames White (Dr. Sandeman's son from another marriage... yeah, Max didn't quite understand it either), who, at the time of regionals, was still sporting a bruised face. The youngest child was a twelve-year-old oddling named C.J. Sandeman who had brought along his pet snake, George.

All together, they made up Max's perfect back-up family for the occasions when her own family was absent. Namely, cheerleading events. C.J. was admittedly a more enthusiastic clapper than Don Lydecker, anyways.

"Guevara," White spat as the squad neared him.

"White," Max said, just as threateningly.

"White," growled Zack. White paled, but sneered at the same time.

"Okay, guys! I realize that there's a lot at stake here, and we're all sort of strung-out, but the key is to work together and - aaah!"

Max bumped C.J., who'd been giving a speech to the squad, out of the way. She addressed the team.

"Okay, guys! I realize that there's a lot at stake here, and we're all sort of strung-out -"

"Really strung-out," Brin muttered to Syl. Max glared at her, but continued.

"Just remember every single speech that Val ever gave us over the years. She gave _a lot _of speeches. It shouldn't be hard. Cindy -" Max made a vague gesture, "you just do whatever it is that gets the crowd lovin' us."

"I got you covered," Cindy promised.

"Syl!" Max yelled. "Keep your spirit fingers movin'." Syl nodded. "Brin," Brin snapped to attention, "no heroics," Max pleaded. "And to the rest of you..." she sighed. "Let's just get this over with, aiight?" There was a general chorus of agreement from the team.

She looked around, noticing a strange absence of loud hooting.

"Zack," she said. "Where's Zane?"

"Zane is..." Zack looked around for his younger brother, peering over the heads of the others. Jondy, who was standing right next to him, started to freak out.

"Oh my God, where the hell is Zane?" she shrieked.

"Zane?" Joshua asked, his mascot head turning in every direction. "Zane! Zane! Zane not here?"

"Zane not here, big fella!" Max said, bordering on panicking. "Zane not here at all."

"What's so wrong with Zane being gone?" Cindy asked, looking confused.

"Zane tends to do _really _stupid stuff when he's alone," Syl told Original Cindy. "The last time..." she shuddered and leaned into Krit's chest. "Oh God, the poor duck never knew what was coming..." Krit rubbed her back soothingly.

"That... it don't sound good," OC looked at Max. "What the hell is wrong with Zane?"

"Nothing's _wrong _with him," Zack argued. "He just gets bored and starts _playing _with stuff. The school counselor arranged for him to have a few tests to see if he was a sociopath... they were inconclusive."

"Only because a mysterious explosion destroyed all evidence of the lab where he'd been tested," Max deadpanned. "This is bad. This is very, very bad." God, she needed a Red Bull. Or three of them.

"What's bad?" a voice asked from outside of the group.

"Zane!" Joshua yelled, giving the young man a huge bear hug.

"Josh, Josh! Air!" Zane choked out. Joshua released Zane, then pointed a fat, furry paw in his face.

"Zane not go missing again!" he scolded. "Everyone," he gestured to the team, "was very worried."

"I'm fifteen!" Zane complained, looking at his fellow cheerleaders (or as he liked to call them, jocundity technicians). "I think I can take care of myself by now!" There was silence for a second, before they all disagreed with a "yeah right" or a "hell no, dude" or a "you's whack" in Original Cindy's case.

"Bloodhounds!" one of the stagehands shouted. "You're up next! After the Muskrats!"

"Word," Max yelled back. She turned back to her team. "People, we've been practicing this damn cheer over and over again. And if there's something we have down by now - it's those fucking spirit fingers!"

"Oooh, she's cussing!" C.J. giggled. White slapped him on the back of the head.

"So, let's get out there and - "

C.J. stood up. What followed was possibly one of the filthiest emissions that ever came from a twelve-year-old's mouth; it lasted only fifteen words, but it simultaneously made Jondy faint, Tinga (a new mother) cringe hoping that her son would never say those words, and White gape in horror at his younger brother. Some teams surrounding them that had the disfortune to hear what he'd said were affected as well. One girl actually vomitted.

Max pointed at the pre-pubescent boy. "What the freak said!" she agreed.

"Uh... Max?" Tinga said, from where she'd been watching the Mighty Muskrats cheer. "Anything sound familiar?" They quieted for a moment, listening. Just above the dull roar of babbling cheerleaders, was a song.

_Cale's _song. The one that _he _taught them.

"Zane, you still have that paintball gun, right?" Max asked.

* * *

**A/N: The paintball gun, of course, being a flashback to the last chapter (where Joshua somehow get Zane healed of a paintball injury. **

**In upcoming chapters: Cheerleading injuries! Betrayl! (Or that may be in the chapter after next... depends, really) and another one of Joshua's parties that ends in horror!**


	27. Chapter 27

_One Failed Cheer Later…_

"Maxie Guevara?" a medium-sized black man asked, walking quickly across the gym to catch Max, who was sprinting out as fast as she could. She had a plan to call Alec from the convenience store across the street so that she could get her ride back home, but she stopped when she heard the nickname that she allowed only certain few people to call her; namely Jondy, Zack and no one else.

Turning around, she realized the recognized the man who was perusing her body with a lecherous look through his one eye.

"Mr. McGinnis," she remembered. McGinnis took his hat off and nodded.

"You can call me 'Jim'," he told her.

"I'd really rather not. What do you want?" Max asked. From her memory, McGinnis had been a horrible, pervert of a guy. The last time she'd seen her father's old business colleague, he was putting the moves on her mother – her _real _mother, and not Renfro. Her mother, of course, disabled McGinnis with a kick to the groin and from that point on Deck didn't allow McGinnis to dinner anymore.

"That was a very interesting _cheer _out there, Miss Guevara," McGinnis said, trying to make his voice sound mellifluous and failing. "I especially enjoyed the part where the bleachers exploded."

"What's your point?" Max asked.

"So interesting, in fact, that I thought I might put in a call to your father and step-mother about it…"

"Now, Mr. McGinnis," Max smiled. "There's no need to alert the Jewish Inquisition about this," she said. "I mean, they'll learn about it in the morning paper when I'm safely in Mexico, anyways."

"It's too late for that," McGinnis said. "I already called Deck and told him about that little fiasco. Luckily for you, I have some very interesting contacts in the press that can keep your failure off of the nightly news…for a price."

"Look, McGinnis, I'm not going to sell my body to you for a clear name!" Max argued.

"Yes, I know that," McGinnis said sadly. "And actually it's not that that I want… at least not with you." Max crossed her arms over her chest.

"I'm listening. Barely, though, so make it quick."

"Too bad, because I'll have to start from the beginning," McGinnis said, taking his hat off and playing with the edges.

* * *

Original Cindy watched Max talking to the evil-looking man warily. Okay, so he didn't _look_ evil, but he gave off a certain vibe. Max seemed to be slightly disgusted by him, judging by the horrified look on her face. OC figured that when Max started yelling and pushing him away, she'd step in. Until then…

"Damn girl," Original Cindy said, sidling up to one particularly nice-looking blonde (again – it was just a vibe she got). "I saw you out there, you got some bangin' moves." The girl smiled.

"Thanks!" Original Cindy held out her hand.

"I'm Cindy." Best keep it to "Cindy" for a while. The "Original" part tended to freak the white chicks out.

"OC, baby!" Alec said, walking by and clamping a hand firmly over Original Cindy's shoulders. "That last step you did during that cheer was _amazing! _When you lifted your leg all the way up over your head like that and – god, I want you just thinking about it." Original Cindy's eyes bugged out and the blonde girl gave a similarly disgusted look and walked away.

Cindy counted to five… then to ten… then to twenty, before pushing Alec away.

"What the HELL is wrong with you, boy?" she ranted. "I was _this _close – _THIS _close, to getting some!" she yelled.

"I was just saving you from me having to tell your girlfriend," Alec shrugged. "What's her name again?"

"Her name is _Chrisette, _and who said I was going monogamous?" Original Cindy demanded. She paused and looked at Alec. "What's with the ugly carnations?" Alec looked down at the bouquet of flowers in his right hand.

"Really? Ugly?"

"Yeah," Original Cindy nodded. "Hope they didn't cost you a lot of cheddar. But then again, with the amount of allowance you get each week, I hope you spent a lot of money on the person you got them for."

"Flowers?" Kendra asked, wandering by. "For me? Really? God, you're so sweet, Alec." She seized the flowers and smelled them, then made a face. "Ew. Carnations."

"Who'd you get them for?" Original Cindy asked. "Brin? Jondy? Tinga? Syl?"

"He couldn't have gotten them for Syl," Kendra stopped her. "Krit'd murder him alive."

"What, by not talking me to death?" Alec asked dryly. "I got them for my dear…" he hesitated, "sister."

"Please, boy, I am not no relative of yours," Original Cindy shook her head. "Not if you're gettin' me flowers _that _ugly."

"Well, then you got them for Maxie," Kendra said, coming to the last logical decision. Alec looked at her from the corner of his eyes.

"No, I didn't," he said. "You want the truth?"

"Yes," both girls said at once.

"Fine, the truth is…" he sighed. "Dix has a new girl coming over tonight and he wanted me to get him some flowers so that he could really impress her."

"Yeah, right!" Original Cindy shrieked. "Dix hasn't seen the sunlight since 1989!"

"So?" Alec asked. "There are some real freaks out there, trust me; I mean, I once met this girl at a bar named Lux..."

"Another induction into the Costume Calvary, huh?" Kendra asked. "I don't care _what _you say," she told him, shoving the flowers back into his hands. "You got those for Maxie and _boy _are you off."

"Off?" Alec asked. "How?"

"Maxie's _high maintenance. _If I were you, I'd get a dozen roses, with a white one in the middle and sign the card 'yours always, Alec'," she said.

"What color would the rest of them be?" Alec inquired.

"Red, dumbass!" Original Cindy yelled.

"Well, I guess I could get those," Alec said. "Not for Max, though."

"Oh, sure," Kendra nodded. "Definitely not."

"Brin really would appreciate roses right about now," Cindy agreed. "I mean, with her whole cheerleading career being over because of one explosion during regionals."

"Hey, they have no way of tracing that explosion back to the squad," Kendra corrected her. "Not if I have anything to do with it, anyways."

"What do you mean?" Original Cindy asked. Kendra smiled enigmatically.

"Oh, you'll see," she giggled. She looked towards the glass doors and grinned even bigger. "There's Walter! I thought he wasn't going to show up!" she waved good-bye before running towards the doors and hugging an overweight cop that was waiting for her.

Original Cindy wrinkled her nose. "Heterosexuality is just _wrong_." She turned her attention to Alec, who was staring intently at the carnations he'd brought. He finally seemed to realized that Cindy was staring at him and looked up.

"What'd she say to get?"

"A dozen red roses with a white one in the middle," OC reminded him.

"Right," he said, tossing his flowers in the trash before making a quick exit.

"Oh, don't worry!" Original Cindy yelled after him. "I'll get a ride with someone else!"

Like the cute blonde doing the stretches over there.

* * *

Max stormed over to Original Cindy, who was just writing the phone number of some blonde in her "little black book".

"What happened?" Original Cindy asked. "You have to sell your soul to the devil for a trip to Nationals?"

"Nope," Max shook her head. "I had to sell _Zack's _body to the devil for the presses not to get wind of everything that happened. Turns out McGinnis had a helluva mid-life crisis."

"Won't Zack care?"

"He better the hell not if he wants to stay on the squad," Max said, looking around. "Where's Alec? He was supposed to drive us home and I'm getting sick of this gym already."

"He went off to give Brin some posies," Original Cindy said. "I'm sure he'll get back soon."

Max growled, "Brin. Did you see the way she fell on her ankle like that? Such an amateur! She acts like she's never seen one of Zane's explosions before!"

"I'm with ya there, girl," OC agreed when a loud voice interrupted their conversation by screaming across the hall.

"Max!" Max turned her head towards the sudden distraction and her jaw dropped when she saw the person coming towards them.

* * *

**Author's Note: I have good news and I have bad news. So, I'll start with the good news first. The **

**Good News: it's Christmas time and I'm going to get a TV! (Okay, so maybe that's good news for me...). **

**Better News: I've got the pictures up for the characters and I'll put the link to the pictures on my bio. **

**Bad News: my computer died and now I've got to wait a while to get another one _because _I'm getting a new TV for Christmas. And, my computer sort of melted down with absolutely everything on it and I was an idiot and didn't save anything to disk. **

**Luckily! I know mostly what I had written for the next three or four chapters. After that, who knows. And, most likely I am going to write a sequel... I think. By then I should have a new computer. So...**

**Coming Soon in Bring It On! Dark Angel Style: Another party at Joshua's, and an unexpected guest comes to stay at The Big Tacky Castle Next Door. (I'll give you a hint: we've seen her before in the fic.)**

**This concludes this very, very long author's note. Have a Merry Christmas or a Happy Hanukkah (which I obviously don't know how to spell) or a Merry Chrismukkah... whatever you do on the holidays. **


	28. Chapter 28

Max, upon seeing who the approaching person was, immediately turned her look of horror into one of happiness.

"Asha!" she greeted jovially with a large, fake smile on; although Asha, who was hobbling towards Original Cindy and Max on crutches, looked far from her usual happy-go-lucky uber-cheerer self.

"_What _the _hell _are you doing with my squad?" Asha demanded once she had hobbled over to Max.

"_Your _squad?" Original Cindy asked. She glanced at Max. "Her squad?" Original Cindy would be happy to jump to her boo's defense and all should the blonde start throwing around those crutches, but hey, she wanted to figure out what this was all about; she'd never really gotten the lowdown on everything that happened before she joined the team.

Max rolled her eyes playfully and smacked her head as if she'd forgotten something. "Sorry, OC. I never really filled you in on Asha." Asha took the time to look at Cindy.

"I was the captain before Max fell on me and ruined my entire career." She looked back at Max. "**Forever." **

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Max said, taking a step back. "Now, forever? Is that really a proper description of time here? I mean, it'll take only a few months for that leg there to heal and you've always got college…"

"I was supposed to be captain!" Asha squealed. "This was supposed to be MY year and you sabotaged me!"

"Sabotaged?" Max yelled. "I didn't sabotage you! If anyone sabotaged you it was yourself!" Asha gasped.

"What are you talking about?" Asha asked. Max crossed her arms over her chest before changing her mind and switching them to her hips.

"_I _am happen to be one of the lightest members on the squad – " Asha snorted.

"Yeah, it really felt like that when the bone snapped, too."

"Valerie always had me as a flier because I'm so light and alert and," Max shrugged, "let's face it. I'm pretty, too. Meanwhile, Jondy is a little bit…" Max paused. "She's a base, obviously. And she's horrible with holding people up! So, obviously your situation is a product of your bad taste in choosing bases."

"I don't **care **what you say!" Asha screeched. "The entire team is still ruined because of what you did out there! I mean, what happened to the Plan that Valerie told us about last year? I mean, platter, nationals – hello!" Max scoffed.

"You mean the Plan that included a bunch of stolen cheers?" she inquired, confidant that she had at least _one _up on the perky blonde. Asha looked shocked indeed. Max mentally high-fived herself.

"_Borrowed_," Asha corrected. "they were _borrowed_ cheers." Max dropped her hands from her hips.

"**You knew?" **she yelled. **"You _knew?" _**

"Valerie said it was fine if we just borrowed the cheers for a little while," Asha said, having the decency to look just a _little _bit ashamed at herself. Max scoffed again.

"It was all right?" she asked. "What – as long as we gave them **back **after we were done?"

"The Chameleons are never going to even make it to Regionals, anyways. They were just kidding themselves," Asha said gently. Max breathed deeply – good aura in, bad aura out (she found that the more she used this trick, the less it worked.)

"OC," Max muttered. "I'm going to hit her in her pretty little blonde face, I swear…"

"Listen," Original Cindy stepped in between the two girls. "Max made a mistake, it happens all the time. The point is, you can't punish her for this; she barely made captain, she's bound to hit a few bumps on the road…" Original Cindy cringed at her own words. How white-father-figure were _those words_?

"A bump?" Asha shrieked, catching the attention of several other cheerleaders. "_You _listen to me, you little two-bit _gymnast_! This isn't a little bump, this is the whole goddamn mountain over here!" she ranted.

Original Cindy looked heavenward, idly wondering how long it took one 18-year-old boy to find a simple bouquet of roses and a card, made the sign of the cross over her heart, then leaped at the mouthy little cripple at the same second that Max launched herself at Asha. Only then, a completely different voice yelled Max's name.

And then, there he was. Logan Cale, the light of Max's life – the apple of her eye (and Zane called their relationship unhealthy – ha!) dressed in his usual button-down shirt and khakis. He stood against the sliding glass doors with sunlight filtering through the panels and framing his tall figure, creating a halo of heavenly light effect around him. He looked like some kind of preppy messiah come to save Max's pagan soul.

But more importantly than that, or the fact that he'd driven three hours to see her and her only, or the fact that he had a bouquet of red roses with a white one in the middle (just like Max liked) in one hand, was the fact that he was carrying a six-pack of Red Bull in the hand that wasn't filled with roses.

"Logan!" Max squealed, running over to her boyfriend. She hugged him tightly, and he wrapped his arms around her as best he could with roses and soda cans in his hands. "Oh my God, Logan!" Max said again. "You brought Red Bull!"

* * *

**A/N: I swear to god, this was the hardest chapter to get out so far. Mostly because I'm picky and I hate working on computersthat are foreign to me and I hate actually _writing_ (you know, with the pencil and the paper). Or because I'm just picky - you decide. **

**Please review!**


	29. Chapter 29

"Thank God you came!" Max exclaimed gratefully as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail and got into Logan's new ridiculously toned down SUV. She threw the plastic rings from the Red Bull cans she'd drained into the backseat. "My ride took off somewhere. Probably off talking to some vapid blonde."

" 'Vapid'?" Logan asked. "And here I remember you saying that you'd never have to use any of those words you learned for the SAT." Max slammed the door after she got into the car.

"I did say that," Max told him. "I learned 'vapid' from Renfro and not from that stupid book."

"Of course," Logan nodded in that way he had of nodding. That way that, no matter how much he nodded, you still thought he didn't really believe what you were saying. Max figured she had plenty of not-believing-nods coming ahead. "So, who was your ride, anyways?" he asked. "One of the guys on the squad?" Max's eyes widened when she realized that she hadn't quite told Logan about… everything.

"Uh, yeah," she said. "It's Krit."

"He broke up with Syl?" Logan asked.

"For the moment anyways. You know them – total yo-yos," Max lied with what must've been her fifth cheesy smile of the day. She'd really gotten good at the faking-happiness thing over the past few weeks.

"So," Logan started. "Brin called a few days ago." And that's when the madness began.

* * *

By the time Logan reached Max's street, Max wasn't talking to him anymore (and hadn't been talking to him for a solid ten minutes). 

"Look, Max – "

"No, _you _look Logan!" Max yelled, breaking her ten-minute silence. "Just because you want to become, like, the best social worker ever doesn't mean that you have to try and… do whatever you did." She wiggled her hand vaguely to punctuate her remark. "Whatever the hell it was." Truth be told, she couldn't quite remember what Logan had said to her that had made her so mad. But she was sure it was _really _bad.

Of course, it never really occurred to Max that Logan would drive up to 337 Waverly and find a big black charred spot instead of Max's own elegantly decorated home.

"Oh my God!" he gasped. "What happened to your house? Should I call the police? Where are your parents? Where's Sketchy? Oh God, where's my cell phone?" It took Max about four seconds of staring straight at where her house had been to realize what he was freaking out about.

"Oh, don't worry about it," she said nonchalantly. "That happened weeks ago. The only casualty was Sketchy's face, and even that wasn't missed too much." Logan out a breath that he seemed to have been holding in. He looked at Max with wide eyes.

"Why didn't you tell me this over the phone?" he asked.

"Because we talked all of two times and I never had a chance!" she nearly shrieked. "It was always, 'sorry for not calling, but I've got to go do homework' or 'sorry for not calling, but my advanced calculus teacher keeps on hitting on me and it's impossible to get out of class on time and then I've go homework and everything'…" she mimicked Logan's deeper voice. "What about _me_? Your loving and caring _girlfriend_?"

"You love me?" Logan asked point blank. Well _that _was taken out of context.

"Maybe," Max said quickly. What could she say now? Sure, Logan had told her he'd loved her millions of times but she'd never really said it back to him – treasuring the words far more than to hand them out like alkopops and a tweenie party. And, she couldn't really take words back now, could she?

"I mean," her voice faltered slightly. "Maybe I do, maybe I don't. I'm very confused right now. I mean, a few days ago I told Pierce Brosnan I loved him."

"Pierce Brosnan?" Logan wrinkled his forehead in confusion.

"Yeah, I was watching some old James Bond movies on TV and… well, the guy's just so damn sexy," she fibbed. Well, it wasn't _too _big of a lie. She really had screamed out her affections for the actor right around the same time that Alec was waxing poetic about Bond's female acquaintance and Original Cindy was telling her Lickety-Boo that she loved her over the phone.

"But… you love me," Logan said again. "You. Love. Me."

"Sure," Max nodded. She truly wasn't sure about this whole love thing. She was about as versed with her feelings as a raccoon was in Ancient Hebrew.

Meanwhile, Logan had a triumphant smile on his face.

"You can just drop me off at the house next door," Max said. "They know me there."

"No problem, _darling_," Logan said, sneaking a sly smile at her. Oh great, Max was afraid of this. Immediately following the "I love you for the first time" stage came the pet name stage. She'd suffered through Krit and Syl going through this stage as they struggled to find new and inventive pet names for each other. At one point Krit was "Krittle-bear".

Max was never more happy to see the Castle Next Door in her life.

"So, I guess this is good-bye for now," Max said, shifting her roses and duffle bag to one hand so that she could open the door with the other. She leaned over and gave Logan a quick kiss on the cheek; but before she could pull away, Logan had one of his hands around the back of her neck and she found herself in a more complicated, _deeper _kiss.

Was it just her imagination or did Logan kiss better in junior year?

* * *

Max eventually got her lips removed of the boyfriend attached to them and climbed out of the car. 

"Thanks for the ride!" she yelled as the vehicle speeded out of the driveway and onto the residential street. The sound of leaves rustling met her ears and it sounded like it was coming from the general direction of the garage. Max looked around for the cause of the sound. "Hello?" she asked outloud.

_Idiot! _She chastised herself. _That's the _first _thing people say right before they get chopped up by the psycho in movies! _

"Hello?" she yelled a little louder. Then there was **definitely **the sound of a garage door slamming. "Crap," she dropped Logan's flowers and her duffle bag and ran over to the garage. It had been locked from the inside, which meant that she had to lose valuable criminal-catching minutes by looking for the keys that Original Cindy had copied off for her.

Finally, she had to run back to the abandoned duffle bag. She found the keys, unlocked the door and opened it slowly to look inside just in case there was a crazy ax-man or something inside. The door bumped into something as it opened. Not a crazy ax-man.

A bouquet of flowers.

Max wrinkled her nose and reached down to grab the flowers. A dozen red roses with a white one in the middle – just like she liked; only this one had a teddy bear and a card attached. She squinted a little in the dim light and read the card.

**Hope all of your dreams come true,**

**Love, Alec**

Short, sweet, too the point and not too sappy, Max noticed. Logan's card droned on about how much he loved her.

"Alec?" she asked, looking around. There was silence for a few minutes before she continued. "Thanks for the flowers. I love them." Certainly Alec wouldn't misconstrue that as a declaration of eternal yearning, right? "Logan's my boyfriend – going on seven months now. He came to pick me up after you left to go talk to Brin or whatever… he's sweet like that." She shrugged. "Kind of bland in the kissing area, but he's sweet. Anyways, tell OC that I went to Joshua's to see what he's up to. And tell my parents that I'm at Jondy's."

There was another silence before a very quiet, "All right," came from the red Corvette.

"Thanks," Max smiled weakly. She had a feeling that one of Joshua's After Competition pity parties would really hit the spot right about now.

* * *

Twelve hours later Max woke up in a strange bed with feathers glued to her forehead and dressed in a giant Metallica t-shirt. 

She turned around to see the head of a giant cat lying next to her and she screamed.

It was one of the more interesting ways she'd woken up, anyways.

* * *

**Ending Note: YES! I have a new computer! A _laptop _in fact. With all sorts of stuff on it! Nonetheless, it is eleven thirty at night and I _do _have school in the morning so I'll have to end it here. But have no fear, everything will be explained in the next chapter. Or not. Depending on how my mood is tomorrow. **

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed and everything because god knows I haven't really been too consistent with my chapters (my goal being a chapter every two or three days – but it ends up being every week or so). And keep the reviews coming, because the more reviews I have, the more motivation I have to actually finish this fic! **


	30. Chapter 30

The morning after one of Joshua's parties was always quite disorderly. There would be people all over the house – draped over the refrigerator, stuck into cabinets, asleep in the bathtub, passed out on the pool table – and it was usually up to Joshua Sandeman to get things back into shape after they left. Of course, he always let them take their sweet time leaving. He liked having company, even if most of it was hungover and asleep.

Unfortunately today was not one of those mornings. You see, today, at precisely 9:23 in the morning, C.J. picked up the ringing house telephone, then exchanged a few words with the person on the other end, and put it back in it's cradle. To Joshua, he yelled, "JOSHIE! DAD'S COMING HOME!"

Joshua, asleep on a couch in the basement with a pineapple in his hands, jerked awake and looked around.

"Father?" he mumbled to no one in particular. "Father. Father. Father!" he jumped off of the couch and looked around.

The basement looked like a Croatian war zone – of course with more Cheetos instead of blood. One guy's arm had even fallen off in all of the excitement.

"Sally put arm back on!" Joshua ordered.

"Sorry, it just does that sometimes – " Sally apologized in a slur before passing out again.

"No! No! No!" Joshua yelled. "Everyone has to get OUT! Father is coming home!" he took another step and inadvertently stepped on a body. "Sketchy!" he said, looking down at the sleeping teenager.

"Mmmfghnnnahhh," Sketchy mumbled. Joshua took his foot off of him and grabbed Sketchy up by the back of his shirt.

"Sketchy, tell Max to come pick you up, _now!" _he said pleadingly. Sketchy looked at Joshua through cloudy eyes.

"Dude," he said slowly. "Max's here."

"Max here?" Joshua asked. Sketchy nodded slightly before starting to snore. Joshua shook him again. "Call Cindy then. Just GET OUT."

"Dude, where's your hospitality?" Sketchy asked, struggling to get to his feet. "I mean, here we are, all pumped up to go to your party and then eat pancakes or something in the morning and then we're – " as he started to get up he slipped and fell on a banana peel. So he started the process again. "We're rudely kicked out just because – "

"_Father _is coming home," Joshua told him. Sketchy's eyes widened and his sprang to his feet.

"Your dad?" he asked.

"Yes."

"You mean like, your dad-dad?"

"Yes." Sketchy held up a hand.

"Say no more. I've got the basement handled, you do the upstairs," he said. As Joshua hurried upstairs, he heard Sketchy yell, "EVERYBODY UP! PANCAKES ARE ON ME AT IHOP!"

And if there's anything that rouses a bunch of hungover, sleepy teenagers, it's the thought of free pancakes from the International House of Pancakes.

* * *

Within moments of waking up, Max found herself crammed into a van with the cat mascot that she'd shared a room with, as well as a variety of other mascots that Joshua had invited from the Regionals, Sketchy – who was wearing Pearly Pink lip gloss because he lost a bet, Sky – tiny, skinny and smashed between a burly lizard mascot in a football uniform, and an ant mascot – and Zack and his new girlfriend.

"Hi, I don't believe we've met," Zack's new girlfriend said upon entering the van.

"Oh, Chrisette, this is Max," Zack introduced her. "Max, this is my new girl, Chrisette."

"I've been wondering why Zack was looking so happy all the time," Max said with a big smile. A true smile this time – a happy Zack was a 'to hell with the rules' Zack.

"And he always speaks very highly of you, of course," Chrisette told her.

"He'd better," Max muttered as the van gave a giant lurch and wheeled off of the driveway.

"Buckle up, everyone!" the cat mascot yelled. "Bobby's not quite experienced on the whole driving thing!" The vehicle gave another lurch (which Max had a sneaking suspicion had more to do with the car's faulty engine rather than Bobby Kawasaki's driving) and sped off into the morning sun…

Which blinded everyone, so Bobby was forced to go another way to IHOP.

* * *

Alec emerged from his bedroom sometime around noon feeling the exact opposite of refreshed and clear-headed. Instead he felt kind of angry and tired inside.

Only, his morning path to the dining room was blocked by a lesbo in the hallway. Alec squinted, seeing Original Cindy clearer and clearer. And she looked _mad. _

"Um… morning?"

"No it ain't no damn morning!" Original Cindy yelled. "It's one in the afternoon, idiot!" she slapped him on the top of the head to punctuate her remark.

"Ow!" Alec said, his head getting less fuzzy by the minute. "What the hell was that for?"

"What you did to Max!" Original Cindy shouted. She smacked him on the ear this time. "I can't," smack, "believe," another smack, "you just," another smack – with her _left _hand this time, "left her hanging!" she used a sort of combination now, batting at him with both hands.

Alec ducked beneath her hands and hurried to the other end of the hall.

"I didn't leave her hanging!" he yelled back. "In fact, I think it was more the opposite! She left _me _hanging!"

"That is _not _what I saw on the video surveillance system, crackhead!" OC screamed. "You _hid _from her!"

"I was about to go on a drive!"

"You were about to go wallow in emotional hell!"

"No, that's really more Max's deal, isn't it?" Alec said bitterly. Original Cindy let out something between a scream and a roar and ran after Alec. Alec darted down the stairs and into the living room. Whatever he did, he had to keep her away from the kitchen – with the knives. They ended up on opposite sides of one couch – two teenagers locked in an epic duel of girl versus boy.

Of course, if you asked Alec it was psychotic lesbian girl versus sensible, good-looking man. And if you asked Original Cindy it was empowered Nubian woman versus idiotic, insensitive, commitment-phobic, rat bastard boy.

They were locked in a stand-off for a few minutes before Original Cindy grabbed up a pillow from the sofa and threw it at Alec. Then Alec grabbed a pillow and threw it at Cindy, and soon they were locked in a very different kind of battle. A pillow-kind of battle.

Ten minutes later, they were both crashed out on the cushion-less couch, panting heavily.

"What were we fighting about again?" Alec asked.

"You're a crackheaded rat bastard," Original Cindy reminded him.

"Damn, I thought you forgot," Alec cursed.

"Don't even think about it either," Original Cindy warned. "This ain't nowhere _near _over. Understand?" Alec nodded.

"Not over. Me a rat bastard," he summarized.

"Right."

Just then, the phone rang, interrupting what must've been one of the most touching conversations that they'd had in a long time.

"Is it a school day?" Alec asked. Original Cindy shook her head.

"It can't be the admin."

"So, maybe Mom and Dad lost it all gambling in Borneo and bill collectors are calling to collect their money, but since we don't have anymore, they're just going to start by taking the house and furniture." At that far-fetched idea, Alec and Original Cindy both burst out laughing.

As if Mom and Dad couldn't just dip into their Swiss offshore accounts they'd been hiding from the government for ten years! The very thought of poverty was insane!

Still chuckling to herself, Original Cindy reached for the phone and held it up to her ear.

"Her Originalness is in," she said. Her face fell as she listened to the person on the other end. "Oh no. Uh huh. Yeah, no problem. We'll be right over." She clicked the phone off and looked at Alec with a crestfallen look.

A silence fell upon them. Seconds passed.

One minute.

Two minutes.

Apparently she wasn't going to tell Alec unless he asked. _Women_. So damn complicated.

"What's wrong?" Alec asked.

"Max is in jail."

* * *

**Ending Note: Aaah yes, I'm so happy to be typing on a regular basis now. Thanks for all of the lovely reviews!**


	31. Chapter 31

Katarina and Dieter were bailed out by Dieter's mascot life partner – an iguana named Chad. Sky was bailed out by Druid ("Sorry, Sketch," he apologized. "I've only got enough money for one of you and, well, Sky's Dad's got the liquor stash in his cabinet and your dad's in AA.") and the Ant was bailed out by a small bald man with white eyes.

Which left Sketchy, Max, and Bobby Kawasaki sitting in the drunk tank doing nothing until help came.

"Y'know," one bearded man who reeked of alcohol slurred to Max. "I used to have a sister... looked like you. She was a cheerleader, too." Max scooted a little closer to Bobby Kawasaki.

"Where's my girl?"

"CINDY!" Sketchy yelled, hearing the voice of their savior.

"Sit down," Max said tiredly. "You're acting like you've never been in jail before."

"Cindy! You have to get us out of here and not tell Renfro or Deck because Renfro said that if she hears that we got jailed again that she'll take away Hanukkah and she did that a few years ago and none of us got any presents and it was a very somber celebration of such a happy holiday and she made us sleep in the backyard until our birthdays and you have to get us out of here!" Sketchy wailed as Original Cindy approached them with a cop beside her looking a bit sour. Sketchy's "pleasant" mood fell. "You saw the file, didn't you?"

"They showed me the file," OC told them.

You see, Max Guevara and Calvin Simon Theodore (alias "Sketchy") had a very detailed history with the Seattle PD. And New York Police Department. And Los Angeles Police Department. In fact, it's easier to say that they had a very detailed history in most major cities.

"You ran casino scams?" Original Cindy asked with a confused look on her face. "How did you even GET into the casinos?"

"_That _is not the point," Max said, standing up. "The point is... they obviously have the wrong people," she said, looking at Sketchy. "I mean, seriously! Do we look like the sort of hardened criminals that would rip off casinos?" She pointed to Sketchy. "Does Sketch even look like he would have thebrains to count to ten, let alone count cards?"

"Miss, your fingerprints were a match to those of..." the police officer looked the two files in his hands. "Calvin Simon Renfro and Maxine Lydecker. Wanted for over a hundred counts of fraud, cat burglary, armed robbery, general theivery, and... "ripping off" casinos," he said, closing one of the files. "And that's just the kid's file," he nodded to Sketchy.

"_Told _you we should have sanded those things off," Sketchy muttered under his breath.

"What are you going to do with them?" Original Cindy asked the officer.

"Well, it's unusual for crimes committed by underage criminals, but, the FBI's coming to take them to - "

"THE FBI?" Sketchy howled, reaching out his spindly arms to grab the collar of the officer's jacket. "You can't let Moorehead have us! She'll rip us to pieces on the stand!"

"You eluded your hearing the last seven times," the officer yanked himself out of Sketchy's reach. "You escaped federal custody, assaulting not one - not two - not even ten, but _twenty _officers of the law that were guarding you. The only reason you weren't all over the nightly news was that the FBI thought that if the city knew that two teenagers were pulling off scams - and getting away with it, they knew the public would riot. You've just had a lucky streak until now." He turned to Original Cindy. "I'm sorry, miss, but there's nothing you can do."

"She can't even bail us out?" Max asked, not believing her ears. Lydecker or Renfro were always able to bail at least one of them out. Usually they took Max. "Not even one?" she pleaded.

"I have strict orders from my superiors," the officer said. "You're not to smell fresh air until the FBI comes for you. And that's that. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go see a man about a warrant."

Max slumped against the bars defeatedly and Original Cindy stood there glaring at the siblings unapprovingly.

"Why?" was her simple question.

"I dunno," Max whined. "I was thirteen. I was bored. I was watching Ocean's Eleven - George Clooney looked really _good _and 'Do you wanna go rip off a casino, Sketch?' 'Sure!'" she mimicked the conversation which had really taken quite some time and planning. "When we got caught, Renfro panicked that this would ruin the rep of the family if it got out... she changed our names, our hair color, moved us to Seattle. The 'rents got new jobs. It all seemed so perfect after that, so we got used to it."

"We never thought we'd get caught again," Sketchy said sadly.

"But Brin and Syl say they've known you your whole lives," Original Cindy said, trying to make sense of this strange situation she'd gotten herself involved in.

"They did!" Max sighed. "Syl's dad was Deck's lawyer or something. Brin's mom was Renfro's personal trainer. When Renfro got her job as princicpal of our school, she offered spots to Syl and Brin to buy their families' silence."

"Well, then," Original Cindy sighed. She looked at the camera up in the corner furtively. "You stay here and... you think about what you've done for the time it takes the FBI to get their asses over here and arrest ya'll."

"You mean you're not going to get us out!" Sketchy shouted. Max slapped a hand over his mouth quickly.

"No, I'm not!" Original Cindy widened her eyes purposefully, hoping he'd get the message. "So, _don't even try anything_."

"We won't Cindy, we learned our lesson last time," Max lied. Original Cindy marched out of the police station feeling good about what Max and Sketchy had told her. She wouldn't exactly be blowing their "covers" as Max Guevara and Calvin Theodore if she talked to Syl and Brin.

She pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number. "Alec?" she asked. "Call Biggs. We've got a problem." She paused, listening to him. "What do you mean, 'is it about Max', of course it's about Max, idiot!"

After all, this wasn't the first time she'd dealt with the assholes in the criminal justice system.

* * *

**Author's Note: Yeah, this chapter totally turned out different than I had imagined when my computer crashed a few weeks ago, but I hope it's enjoyable. Please review - because reviews make a happy Vkitty and a happy Vkitty is a prolific (and plagiaristic Vkitty). **


	32. Chapter 32

Hours ticked by. People were released from the drunk tank, and people were put in. Soon it was the next day, and neither Max nor Sketchy had seen or heard anything from their friends.

"They're not coming, are they?" Sketchy asked when they were, once again, the only two in the drunk tank. "We're going to be given the death sentence and Moorehead's going to have a public decapitation like they did in England in the Dark Ages," he sulked.

"Relax," Max told him. "There's no way they're giving us the death sentence for ripping off casinos. Plus, even if they did we'd be executed by lethal injection and not public decapitation."

"This is all my fault," Sketchy moaned. "If I hadn't rented _Ocean's Eleven _from Blockbuster, you never would have wanted to go rob a casino like George Clooney and we would never be in this mess."

"We would have found a way!" Max reassured him. "Dad would have rented _The Godfather _trilogy or something and we would have wanted to get involved with the mob. Face it, Sketch – we were **destined **to be criminals. We still would have ended up in jail the last time." She shook her head. "This time it's my fault."

"Why?" Sketchy asked, eager to hear his sister's admission of guilt.

"I don't know!" Max whined loudly. "It just _is!_ Everything's my fault!" She made a sobbing noise and buried her face in her hands.

Sketchy shrugged. "Okay." Max spun around to glare at him. "What?" he asked. "I was just agreeing with you!" Max covered her face with her hands again and resumed her slight rocking. "You know Agent Moorehead's gonna have us in juvie until our great-grandchildren are old."

"I know," Max nodded.

"And they'll never know their great-grandparents because we're old and wrinkled and in prison."

"I know."

"And they'll have to do a family history and they'll ask their parents 'Who were our great-grandparents?' and their parents will shrug and shake their heads because we never got to know _them _either because we were in prison."

"Oh, I wouldn't count on that."

"And then – " Sketchy looked at Max. "What?"

"What?" Max asked.

"No, what'd _you _say?" Sketchy asked.

"I didn't say anything," Max said. She pointed to the bars. "_She _did." She nearly fell off of her seat when she realized that someone was standing outside of the cell. "Syl?" she asked.

"Yuppo," Syl nodded. "OC would have gotten Jondy but – well, if your secret got out it would ruin the family rep wouldn't it?" she asked with a sly smile.

"Brin's totally cashing in on this, isn't she?" Max asked.

"Oh, you'll owe her 'til you're old," Syl grinned, grabbing a ring of keys off of the wall and trying to figure out which key fit. "Man, they still use these things? I thought they'd've switched to keypads and codes by now." She wriggled one key in the lock before switching to another one.

"So, Original Cindy calls us up at half-past-dead on a Sunday morning and guess what she says?" Syl continued. "She says that Joshua's party was evac'd because his dad was coming home, and you two ended up in a car that got slammed for – of all things – underage driving!"

"Hey, that was not our fault!" Sketchy said, standing up. "Bobby Kawasaki never told us he was a middle school mascot!"

"Yeah, well, then she tells us that the police picked up on your prints," Syl tried another key, unsuccessfully. "How many times have I told you guys to sand those damn things off? It's not like they'll grow back! Or at least not very fast."

"Shut up and get us outta here, all right?" Max hissed. "It's not like those NSA-rejects'll be checking out that shootout forever."

"You say that because you don't know the entire plan," Syl said, trying another key. This time she was successful, as the lock clicked minutely. She opened the door and rushed them through. "It's very carefully planned with lots of guns and lots of mascots."

"I'm not gonna like what I'm about to hear, am I?" Max asked.

"Oh, you're going to freak out," Syl said.

* * *

In the morning, Agent Moorehead surveyed the scene before her. Twenty-seven policemen had been injured; twenty of them had been at the actual scene of the shootout they'd been sent to investigate (luckily, the "shooters" – a bunch of crazy teenaged school mascots, were firing rubber bullets), and seven of them had been at the station while the rest were gone; the surveillance system had mysteriously shorted out the night before; and of all things a chocolate bar had melted on the system server and they'd lost everything!

And of course, two child criminals were missing from the cell they'd been imprisoned in. Max Lydecker – also known as Max Guevara, and Calvin Renfro - also known as Calvin "Sketchy" Theodore. Why was she even surprised?

"Get Detective Sung on the phone in LA," Moorehead told one of the policemen left standing. "We're going to track down those little brats, one way or another."

She knew they would resurface one way or another. Especially because of one undeniable factor – the bored, caffeinated, over-developed cheerleader that, at thirteen, had so perfectly orchestrated a scheme to rob a casino was now a bored, caffeinated, normally-developed seventeen-year-old. And in a little less than three months were Nationals, the biggest competitive cheerleading event of the season and her last chance at high school infamy.

"Tell him to clear up his schedule for the week of February thirteenth," Moorehead told the cop who was already phoning Sung.

"Where are you going, ma'am?" the cop asked Moorehead as she started to walk out of the precinct.

"I'm going to see a man about a spy," Moorehead said more to herself than anyone else.

Because if there was anything that could flush a cheerleader out, it was Nationals.

* * *

**Ending Note: How could I _not _make Max and Sketchy infamous fugitives? **

**Coming up next: a mysterious stranger from someone's past! (Because I've exhausted every other soap opera cliche _but _that one.)**

**Reviews are highly welcome! **


	33. Chapter 33

"Seven hundred, eight hundred, nine hundred, a thousand," Max counted out into Brin's palm. "There, are we even?"

"Nowhere near it," Brin scoffed. "But give me your lunch money again next week and I'll consider it."

"Come on, Brin! I was saving up for some Strokes tickets!" Max said. "They were going to be a birthday present for Sketch. You know, 'Thanks for not ratting to Renfro, have some backstage concert passes that I starved myself for a month for'?"

"That's right, the Strokes _are _in town, aren't they?" Brin asked. She raised both eyebrows at the money. "I was thinking on getting some tickets for myself. Guess now I can pull it off. Thanks, Maxie." She sauntered off in a classic villain saunter, leaving Max with a sour expression on her face.

* * *

"So, have you thought about Nationals yet?" Jondy asked from her position next to the soda machine where she was licking a large, _Sabrina the Teenage Witch _themed popsicle. Max shook her head.

"Nope. I'm really trying not to," she said.

"You know, they're in –"

"Yeah, I know, less than three months," Max said, finally managing to jimmy Brin's locker open. "But, well, I was thinking that I'd get started on planning and everything when OC and… them got back from Aspen."

"Still no calls, huh?" Jondy asked.

"Not one!" Max said in an exasperated tone. "I mean, it's been a week already and…" she grabbed the large pile of money from inside of the locker and counted it.

"Maybe you really hit him too late with the boyfriend dealio," Jondy suggested. "Maybe you should have told him right off the bat and he would have understood and not felt like you were leading him on." Max frowned at Jondy.

"Who are you talking about?" she inquired. Jondy scowled back.

"Who're _you _talking about?" she asked.

"Cindy. You?"

"No one," Jondy said quickly. "I mean… I was thinking about someone totally different. I thought you were… Syl," she lied. "Krit hasn't called her for a week and… God, it must be the sugar high." Jondy pitched the popsicle in the trash bin and made a slightly frightened face.

"Maybe it's the new diet," Max thought outloud. "I heard on the news that the low-carb thing's really bad for your body." She quickly rolled up her money and stuffed it in her backpack. "I've got money, we can go get burgers or something. Then stop by 7-Eleven for some Red Bull?"

"I would," Jondy said apologetically. "But Mom's ragging on me to stop drinking so much soda. She says it's hurting my teeth."

"Red Bull isn't soda," Max told her. "It's sweet life-giving elixir and I wouldn't be the same without it. Well, we can still get burgers, right?"

"Sure!"

* * *

Original Cindy and Alec returned back to 338 Waverly on Saturday, January 4th. Two days before school started and three days before Sketch's birthday.

"Cindy!" Max said happily, grabbing her friend and hugging her tightly.

"I see ya'll haven't gotten into too much trouble," Original Cindy said. She looked at Sketchy. "What's with the head bandage?"

"It's a long story," Sketchy said grouchily. A long story that included some Happy Hanukkah blunts and explained why Max had to wash some blood off of the driveway at three in the morning before Renfro and Deck got back from work.

It was best left for a better time.

"Dude, there's a dent out in the cement out there," Alec said, walking into the house and straight into the kitchen. Being on the road for seven hours tended to create an appetite.

"Shut up, fool! You'll ruin the homecoming!" Original Cindy chastised. She turned back to Max. "So, how's everythin'? How was Christmas?" she asked.

"Quiet," Max nodded. "Very quiet. Sketchy bumped his head on the bottom of the pool once," she nodded to Sketchy's head bandage (because lying was so much easier than telling the truth). "We had to take him to the hospital and they just stitched it up and we were good to go!"

"Sounds like a blast," Bling said dryly as he walked past them carrying three luggage bags. "Now, if you'll excuse me?" Original Cindy and Max quickly got out of his way as Bling took the suitcases upstairs.

"You brought Bling with you to Aspen?" Max asked in a whisper.

"Yeah," Original Cindy nodded. "Mom and Dad paid him another thousand per week if he could work over holidays."

"I wish _I _had a manservant," Sketchy grumbled before crashing on the couch. Cindy made a face at his unusually angry disposition.

"Ignore him," Max said. "He's just mad because Dr. George lowered his morphine prescription. So, tell me everything about Aspen? Was the snow white? Was the skiing fun?"

"Snow was gray. Skiing was a bust. It always is." Original Cindy waved a hand to punctuate her sentence. "The only reason Original Cindy go down there anymore is because of the hot ladies!"

"You mean... there's no familial bonding and fun snow?" Max asked. Original Cindy shook her head.

"Original Cindy met this one hot mama that was so old, her daughter was older than I am. She was fine, too. But we're not going to get into that right now." Max rolled her eyes.

"Come on, we've got to go practice," Max said. "I doubt you've been remembering your cheers while you were shacked up at Hot Mamas 'R' Us."

* * *

Soon after Original Cindy and Alec returned to Seattle, things got back to normal. Well, normal as in everybody still had two legs, two arms and one head. But then again, that was about as normal as things got around there. That was, until…

_Knock! Knock! Knock!_

Max groggily reached for her alarm clock, picked it up, and slammed it back down on her dresser – successfully smashing it to pieces.

_Knock! Knock! Knock!_

"Grrrr!" Max rose out of bed. She didn't sleep much, but when she did, she liked _not _to be disturbed by people who chose to visit in the middle of the night. The person who chose to visit in the middle of the night chose to annoy her even more by ringing the doorbell repeatedly.

It was probably Sketchy – high and locked out of the house after accidentally falling asleep at Druid's house.

_Knock! Knock! Knock!_

_Ding-dong-ding! Ding-dong-ding! Ding-dong-ding!_

"God, I'm fucking coming, all right?" Max shrieked. It was a good thing that everyone else in the house slept like a log, otherwise she would have been in definite trouble by her parents for swearing.

_Ding-dong-ding! Ding-dong-ding!_

_Knock! Knock! Knock!_

Or at least everyone else _slept _like a log, unless a stranger came a-knocking at three in the morning with, apparently, little else in their mind but waking up the entire house. Original Cindy was up within seconds of Max reaching the stairs, and Alec was coming out of his bedroom as Max and OC reached the kitchen.

"Whovefuckisit?" Alec murmured sleepily as he rubbed his eyes with his fists.

"Sketchy," Max said, stomping towards the door. She fully intended on letting Sketchy know exactly what she thought of his knocking so loudly.

_Knock! Knock! Kno- _

"WHAT?" Max shouted, wrenching open the door. Instead of finding Sketchy, she found a small, teenaged girl – not much older or younger than Max herself – with brown hair tied into two ponytails under her raincoat hood. She was soaked in rain water and hugging a small backpack to her chest.

"Does Alec live here?" the girl asked. Max turned around, only to find herself completely alone in the living room. There was some light pounding on the stairs that told Max exactly where OC and Alec had gone.

"Uhhh…" she looked around. "Sleeping. Can I help you?" the girl nodded.

"Yeah, my name's Rachel Berrisford," the girl said. "I know him from a while back. I need a place to stay."

* * *

**Ending Note: Bleh, can't type right… so sleepy. I sort of planned the thirtieth chapter to be the middle point of this story. I'm not quite sure how that's going to work out, but I'm pretty adamant on wrapping this story up in _less _than a hundred chapters. **

**You know those reviews? They really help with this whole writing thing. And now I'm going to sleep. **


	34. Chapter 34

Max let Berrisford sleep in her room for the night, but made sure that she left for school early in the morning. Sure, she'd pay money to witness what would happen when Rachel had to try and beat one of the Fresh-And-Clean twins to the shower – but she really had to go visit Kendra.

So, precisely seven minutes before the bell rang, Max skidded to Kendra's office (because, when you run that fast you just _have _to skid when you stop) and opened the door.

"Alec's got an ex!" she said excitedly. It wasn't every day that someone told Max personal secrets, and she liked to take advantage of this occasion the best way she could – by telling the school gossip columnist.

"Well, of course he's got an ex. Can't think of him being solitary for long, can you?"

"She's sixteen, her name's Rachel Berrisford and her dad kicked her out of the house so she came over to our place to try and bum a place to sleep for a while," Max continued. Kendra furrowed her brow.

"Alec's shacking _up _with his ex? Now ma-hay-be I can make something out of that," she said, rapidly typing on her laptop. "I'll Google the name Berrisford, too. See if anything column worthy comes up for that. See if you can get a picture of her," Kendra passed her new digital camera to Max. Max examined the camera carefully.

"New?"

"From Walter," Kendra explained simply. "He's getting kinda jealous because I had a few dates over the past few days…"

"How many?" Max asked.

"Twelve in six days," Kendra said. "Really, that's not too much, is it? Guys are so weird. Anyways, he thinks he can win me back by giving me stuff."

"Like really nice Nikon cameras?" Max asked.

"Yep."

"Huh." Max frowned. Logan never got her anything of importance. Well, there was numerous bouquets of flowers – but no digital cameras or laptops. And she knew he had the money for it. When she turned to leave the room, she was stopped in her tracks by Rachel Berrisford standing in the doorway.

"Hi, Max," Rachel said brightly.

"H-Hi Rachel," Max stuttered. "Aren't you - how'd you get here?" Kendra grabbed the camera from Max and snapped a picture of Rachel, then ran back to her computer and downloaded it. Rachel blinked dazedly.

"I walked," she told Max.

"W-walked?" Max asked. Max had never, ever walked to school (despite the fact that it was all of ten blocks away). She always had a ride - this morning she'dridden her Baby to school.

"I didn't want to be too much of a bother to Alec and Cindy's morning routines, so I left," Rachel shrugged. "So, can I hang around with you for the day? I don't know anyone out here. If it's not too much trouble...?" she blinked up at Max. Max nodded.

"Sure, you can hang out with Max!" Kendra spoke up, her eyes focused on her computer screen. She looked at the two in the doorway. "We want to know _all _about you. For the school paper. We always do a special on new students," she added. "Aren't you enrolling?" Rachel shrugged.

"I don't have my Dad's signature for any papers, though," she said.

"Oh, I don't think that's going to be a problem," Kendra said, already printing something up on her printer. "Max, call Joshua and tell him to get his butt over here. Rachel, you just make yourself comfortable."

* * *

It wasn't exactly a well known secret, but Joshua Sandeman was quite the talented forgery artist. Max had never really had use for him because - well, when your stepmother is the principal of the school, you can't really get away with a forgery, can you?

It was three minutes until school started now. Luckily, Joshua hadn't been far from Kendra's office - he'd been in Mrs. Vertes's room preparing for the day ahead. When he got to Kendra's office, Kendra held up several school forms and a copy of Rachel's last report card which Mr. Berrisford had signed.

It took exactly one and a half minute for Joshua to sign everything, and one minute for Kendra to scan everything and send it to the school secretary for filing. Next it took fifteen seconds for Kendra to print and laminate Rachel's school ID. So, by the time the bell rang, all parties present in Kendra's office were already seated in their homeroom.

"Syl's not here, so you can take my desk and I'll take hers," Max told Rachel as Brin walked in in her new Versace shirt-dress and black leggings.

"You're late, Sung."

"Yeah, I know," Brin snarled back at Mrs. Vertes. She stopped when she saw Rachel at Max's usual desk.

"What's all this about?" Brin asked. "Who's this interloper?"

"That's Rachel," Max said. "Rachel will be joining us for a few days until the school gets her schedule fixed. Rachel, Brin; Brin, Rachel."

"Hi," Rachel extended her hand. Brin ignored it and sat down in her seat. Max rolled her eyes and pulled a Red Bull out from her backpack. She caught Rachel looking at the Red Bull.

"What, you want some?" Max asked.

"No, thanks," Rachel said. Good, Max thought, more for me. She took a sip.

"I don't suppose you've got any Kabbalah in there, do you?" Brin asked. "I had to stay up all night doing that stupid paper for Vertes's APCP."

"Fresh out," Max said sarcastically. Brin slouched in her chair, knowing that she was fighting a lost cause from the beginning.

Three minutes later (therefore, four minutes after the bell rang and one minute before the TV flickered on to show the school news bulletins) Alec walked in. At least Max assumed Alec had walked in – she was busy stuffing her empty Red Bull can back into her backpack.

"Hey, hot boy," Brin greeted jovially. At Alec's look, she shrugged. "I got it from Cindy. You don't mind me calling you that, do you?"

"Brin, Syl," Alec said, sitting in his desk. "Max."

"What?" Max asked, resurfacing from wrestling with her backpack. Alec jumped up from his chair in surprise.

"What the f - " he looked at the desk in front of him where Rachel's face was hidden by her binder. "What – where?"

"Rachel, I think Alec's addressing you," Brin told her. "You look pale, Alec. Should we ask Mrs. Vertes to fetch the smelling salts?"

"McDowell, sit," Vertes said, pointing to his desk. Alec sat, but immediately turned to Max's desk behind him. He gestured to Rachel, who was now paying attention to the television rather than to Alec, then to Max, then he made some sort of neck-slice-y gesture.

Max took his sign language to mean that Alec was going to kill himself because Max had slept with Rachel. Okay, maybe there was a better way to interpret that.

"Welcome, welcome to another year at the best high school in the entire district…"Ames White's unseemly bruises (caused by Zack and Krit last year, if you have not forgotten) had somewhat faded away. That was to say, Sandeman had taken him to the dentist and gotten his teeth fixed, then taken him to the plastic surgeon to get his nose and cheekbones re-done. While he was at it, he also took him to get contact lenses, eliminating the need for the thick glasses.

"My dad kicked me out," Max heard Rachel telling Alec.

"Why?" he asked.

"He thought I was pregnant," Rachel said.

"What? Why the hell did he think you were pregnant?" Alec demanded.

Rachel shrugged. "I was going through a rough patch after we broke up. I ate a lot of Cocoa Krispies and Ben and Jerry's – watched a lot of daytime TV. Then I sort of got the stomach flu and threw up a lot and he just jumped to conclusions."

"So why didn't you just go to one of your friends' houses?"

"I dunno. I knew you had a place in Seattle and this just seemed like the best idea," Rachel said.

"It wasn't," Brin muttered. Alec turned to glare at Brin (which was usually something that Max did, but this time he would make an exception), but she ignored him.

"So I hoped I could stay at your house for a while," Rachel said. "Do you mind much?"

"Uhh… no, not really," Alec said. "I'm sure Max won't mind if Sketchy moves into her room. Of course we'll have to have the infection squad check out the room first but – "

"Wait, what?" Max interrupted. "Why does Sketchy have to move into my room?"

Max and Sketchy hadn't shared a room since they'd moved from LA four years ago, and Max really wasn't itching to go back to that experience.

"Because you're brother and sister and you love each other," Alec reminded her. "Remember?"

"No, I really don't remember love coming into the picture," Max snapped. "Why can't she just sleep in the living room or something?"

"What's the big deal with Sketch moving into your room?" Alec asked. "What, are you afraid of little brother cooties?"

"You say that in such an amused voice because you've never had to share a room with that little packrat," Max snarled. "Seriously, just removing the first inch of dust from his room would be a planetary service."

"I can sleep in the living room if it's really that big of a problem," Rachel said in a quietly pleasant voice. "I really don't mind – "

"You're _not _sleeping in the living room!" Alec told her.

Max and Alec were still fighting about the room situation when homeroom ended. Then the fight lasted out into the hallway and into chemistry. By English, they weren't talking to each other. And by lunch, they wouldn't even spare a glance in the other's direction. 

Max took her usual seat between Original Cindy and Joshua when Brin sat down across from them.

"We've got to get rid of this new girl," she said plainly.

"What new girl?" Original Cindy asked. She looked over where Brin was staring and saw Rachel following Alec around – almost like some sort of sick love puppy, Max thought. "Ohh… so the school honey bear's got a new-old-on-again-off-again boo and ya'll are jealous?"

"It's not jealousy," Kendra sat down next to Brin. "It's journalism. You wouldn't happen to know anything about this Berrisford girl, would you?" She held out a tape recorder to catch OC's next words.

Cindy leaned into the recorder, pursed her perfectly lipstick-ed lips, and spoke loudly into the recorder, "No comment." Kendra pouted and retracted the recorder. "Ya'll are crazy and I'm gonna go to the bathroom."

"Uh, I would dot do dat if I were you," a nasal voice said. Syl plopped down into the seat next to Brin.

"Ew, what the hell happened to you?" Brin asked. "You're all… snotty."

"Syl has the syph," Joshua supplied helpfully.

"Is dat what Zane's sayigg about be?" Syl demanded. "Dabb, I'b goigg to kill dat little 'tard!" she sneezed into the handful of napkins she had in her hand.

"What's the deal with the bathrooms?" Max asked.

Syl shrugged. "I sort of clogged up de toilets wid all of dese disgustigg tissues." Another sneeze. "I told the secretary, though. Should be fixed in an hour or two she said." A cough.

"Original Cindy gotta take a leak," Original Cindy said simply. "What the hell she gonna do without the toilets working?"

* * *

"Um… I don't think so," Nurse Blanchard said gleefully.

Elizabeth Blanchard was the school nurse – but she might as well have been Renfro's own daughter for as much as the two were alike. Nurse Blanchard wouldn't give you a band-aid unless she considered it an emergency. And unfortunately for most, Nurse Blanchard's definition of an emergency was if she was in imminent danger of losing her job.

Luckily, her and Cindy spoke the same language.

"How much will it cost?" Original Cindy asked bluntly. Nurse Blanchard paused for a moment with a finger on her chin, looking up at the ceiling in thought.

"Five hundred," she said finally.

"I gotta pay five hundred dollahs to take a pee-pee?" Original Cindy said incredulously. "No, no, Original Cindy don't play that game. You let me in," she ordered.

"There's only one key to this bathroom and I have it," Nurse Blanchard told her. "And the only way you'll get in is if you give me five hundred dollars. Sorry."

"Nurse Blanchard," Max said, stepping forward for her friend. "Elizabeth," she said familiarly.

"You know, I really prefer it if my students called me Nurse Blanchard," Nurse Blanchard said curtly.

"Seriously?" Max shrugged. "I can call you whatever the hell I want because my mom is the principal of the school. Three-quarters of the board of governoros is made up of my best friends' parents, and, well, I'm a cheerleader," she said point-blank. "You let my friend into the bathroom or we're going to have trouble."

"Trouble-shmouble," Nurse Blanchard said. "What can you do to me?"

"It's really not what I can do," Max said. "More like what the jury will do when my little brother testifies to you sexually harassing him when he came to you with a stomachache." Nurse Blanchard glared at Max – and she had a _very _powerful glare, nearly as good as Donald Lydecker's but not half as good as Max's.

"Can we decide this soon?" Original Cindy asked in a strained voice. Nurse Blanchard sighed and gestured to the bathroom.

"Go." Original Cindy rushed into the restroom and locked the door behind her. "And I'm going to go have a talk with Principal Renfro about your little blackmail scheme," Nurse Blanchard told Max.

"Then I'll tell her about how you've been withholding ice packs from kids with bruises unless they pay you!" Max shot back. Nurse Blanchard scowled and wrenched open the door.

"Then I'll tell how your little brother's been asking me every day for the past two years if the government's allowed medical marijuana in schools yet!" Nurse Blanchard yelled.

"Then I'll – " Max followed Blanchard out into the hallway, only to have Blanchard stop dead in her tracks in front of her. Max stopped as well, seeing the one thing that she had _thought _would never happen.

Alec.

Kissing Rachel.

By the water fountain!

* * *

**A/N: Ahh yes, and the next chapter will be... well, it could be a number of things. I'm actually not sure yet. **

**Reviews are always welcome!**


	35. Chapter 35

"And then she was, like, all over him!" Max continued on her rant of Berrisford at lunch the next day. "And he was totally lovin' it!"

"What a loser."

"And that Berrisford girl – "

"Trouble."

"And blegh! It was like watching the _Blue Lagoon _again… only they were totally in front of _everybody_." Max had seen the _Blue Lagoon _only once – with Sketchy, and that was when she was nine and Sketchy was seven and the memory mostly consisted of them holding their hands in front of each others eyes during the "icky" scenes.

Had you, two days ago, told Max that she would now be sitting with Brin and Syl at lunchtime – talking about _Alec_ – she would have, very rightfully so, bopped you over your head and told you that your doctor needed to up your medication.

Of course, that was before Alec had kissed Rachel. And it looked like a very _nice _kiss indeed. Since then, the tables had turned. She found herself sitting with some of her worst enemies and without her usual lunch-mate, Cindy. Now Cindy was sitting at the same table with Alec and Rachel and _laughing _and _talking _and _eating_ with them… what a traitor!

"Maybe we can just leave some sort of anonymous message on her dad's cell phone," Jondy suggested. "Tell him where Rachel is, then he'll come and take her back home."

"No go," Max nixed the idea. "He'd have the police raid the house and… _I _live there." Jondy raised an eyebrow.

"Drop the subject and leave it alone, Jon," Syl told Jondy. Jondy still did not know that Max and Sketchy were fugitives on the run and if the police raided their house and found them there, they'd get prosecuted and probably put in Juvie for a good ten years – and Max really had no intention of telling her until the time was right. Syl turned to another subject. "Brin, did you get the Diane Von Furstenberg dress on sale or what?"

"Nah," Brin corrected her. "Mom got this new celebrity client and she's been buying me new stuff since Christmas since he's paying her bundles."

"Who is it?" Max asked, happy to relieve her mind of anything Alec-related.

"I'm under a contract of secrecy or something," Brin said. "I can't say who he is, what movies he was in or what sort of exercises he's doing." She giggled, "But he invited me to this brunch he's having with the rest of his _Days of Our Lives _co-workers."

Syl jumped up from her seat. "YOU'RE HAVING BRLUNCH WITH A _DAYS OF OUR _FUCKING _LIVES _STAR AND YOU COULDN'T AT LEAST **CALL **ME ABOUT IT?" she shouted.

"Sit down!" Jondy urged her. Syl did not sit down.

"Contract of secrecy," Brin repeated. "Besides, he's been off of _Days _for a while now – he just likes to hang out with his old friends."

"But we're _best friends!" _Syl hissed. "But apparently, that doesn't mean anything to you if you're not going to tell your best friend that your mom's got a hot celebrity client!"

"Syl, stop making a scene!" Max said.

"NO!" Syl screamed. "I'm NOT going to sit down! In fact, I'm not going to sit down at this table ever again!" She picked up her tray and stepped out from in front of her bench. "You neglected to tell me about the brunch and therefore, you breached the sacred laws of best friendship!"

"I was gonna tell you eventually," Brin said, looking very calm about all of this. "Sit back down, Syl. You're attracting attention."

"You can't tell me what to do!" Syl told Brin. "We're no longer best friends! I'm going to go find someone else to be best friends with and you'll never hear of me again! Understand?"

"Fine," Brin shrugged. "There's tons of girls who'd love to be the best friend of a girl like me," she said. Syl glared at her for a moment, then huffed and walked off in the direction of Original Cindy and Alec's table.

"Um… Brin?" Max asked, looking at the Asian girl sitting opposite her. "Do you _realize _what just happened?"

"Syl tried to get me to invite her to the brunch and made a scene and went to go join Alec's table," Brin summed up. "So do you two wanna go to the D.O.O.L. brunch or what? I was gonna invite Syl, but obviously she has her loser-pants on today." Max and Jondy shared a glance.

"Hell yeah!"


	36. Chapter 36

The day of the brunch, Max woke up at five in the morning. Sketchy, of course, was already awake – five o'clock on a Saturday morning being the only time that no one would catch him lighting up a joint.

"You've got bedhead," he remarked from his seat on the floor.

"You've got dilated pupils," Max grumbled back. Sketchy rubbed his eyes as Max grabbed some of her clothes from the closet (which she'd transferred everything she owned into – seeing as how Sketchy never used it).

She then took a shower and proceeded to get dressed in the new clothes that she had bought _special _for the occasion. Describing the clothes would take an unprecedented amount of time, so it's better to say this:

They were new. And they were possibly the best clothes she'd ever invested in.

Following the clothing, Max started on her hair – which took a good hour and a half to set and curl; and then she finished it all off with doing her make-up. When she was done, she forewent breakfast (it was a brunch, after all) and did what she would have done on any other Saturday.

She watched cartoons in the living room.

After a few minutes (it being around eight in the morning and all) Alec came down stairs as well, still clad in pajamas and Homer Simpson slippers, and sat down on the couch next to her.

"Big date?" he asked.

"Not exactly," Max replied. "Big brunch." At Alec's confused look, she added, "It's a mix between breakfast and lunch. I'm just waiting for Brin to pick me up."

"Where at?" Alec inquired.

"I have no idea," Max said.

"With who?"

"Um… Brin," Max repeated. At that moment the phone rang. Max picked it up, expecting one of Renfro's colleagues on the other end. What she did not expect was: numerous hiccups.

But let us digress onto another side of the story for a moment – to get the full perspective of what was going on.

* * *

Brin Sung was 5'4 and the daughter of a half-Chinese, half-Korean detective and a Chinese hostel owner who taught some aerobics classes on the side. Life until she was six years old was pretty stable: she was a kind, innocent child with a pure soul and a heart of gold who cheered for the Houston Habakkuks (a tiny-tot church-run cheer squad) in Houston, Texas. And then when she was six, everything would change.

Detective Sung, Brin's father, was transferred to LAPD, so Brin and her mother had to go with him leaving behind the family-run hostel that had been in her mother's line for generations and moving into a small, cramped apartment. Brin herself had to transfer to a new school: Suzuki Public Elementary, where she had to join a lesser cheerleading group (the Suzuki Elementary Salmons) and make all new friends with the fast-talking Californians that her grandpa had warned her were all "smart-mouths" and "devil children". Needless to say, she wasn't very happy with the switch.

And then of course her mother switched full-time to becoming a fitness trainer, gaining clients of all races and sizes. She was featured in fitness magazines as the trainer with the fastest results, and it was after the February 4th issue of _Fitness _that she got a call from a career woman named Elizabeth Renfro. And it was in May of that same year, after Renfro had become fast friends with Brin's mother, that Brin had to attend the birthday party of a Renfro's seven-year-old son, Calvin.

Fast forward three years, one very nasty divorce, six cheerleading competitions and press play when Brin's mother got off the phone with a very distressed Renfro. She told Brin, Brin's stepfather and her half-brother Charlie some very unsettling news: they were moving again, to Seattle this time.

Later, ten-year-old Sketchy would tell Brin the entire story: the heists, the burglaries, the money, the drugs, the clothes and the last failed heist that resulted in them getting caught.

Add this to the fact that Brin was now in her last year of high school, she'd had to protect the secret of one of her mother's best friends' daughters' for the last four years, she was still dateless for prom, her best friend was getting all huffy because of a simple failure to remember, and there was a good chance they might not win Nationals this year…

It was a great deal of stress on one seventeen-year-old girl. And then her shrink (her mother signed her up for counseling following the divorce) suggested that she find something to do where she didn't have to be vaguely trained at all and she couldn't possibly have any anxiety.

So, when she was sixteen, Brin started competitively eating. And being skinny and Asian – she won. Very few people had been in her room before, so very few people were privy to the numerous t-shirts, certificates, and free burger coupons she'd won and hung up on her wall. And very few people were privy to the fact that she had her own fan club in Korea.

That is, until she got the hiccups.

It was towards the end of a hamburger plate – which usually would have taken Brin about six minutes flat or so depending on how many condiments it had…

_Hic! _

Only, it didn't stop there. The hiccups overwhelmed her, eventually causing her to lose the race against another small Asian girl. She managed to get home without swerving her SUV off the road, though, and that alone was a blessing from God.

But, when she finally got home and (despite the hiccups) got to sleep, she woke up in the morning and started hiccupping again. And just like any other girl would do when they woke up at six in the morning after having hiccups for an entire night.

She decided to completely bypass telling her mom about her hiccups and instead talk to Dr. Carr at his private practice.

"So, can you prescribe me some sort of medicine to suppress them or something?" Brin asked when Dr. Carr came back with the x-rays and hung them up.

"I can prescribe you antibiotics for you to take after the surgery," Dr. Carr told her.

Brin did a double-take at that. "Wait – _surgery? _For _hiccups_?"

"There's a small tear in your throat," Dr. Carr explained simply. "It'll take a little more than some pills and tea to heal. We're going to have to operate." Brin sat back on the cold hospital chair.

"Or?" she asked. "Don't I have another option?"

"Or," Dr. Carr continued. "You can try leaving it untreated, eat something bad and tear up your entire throat." Brin thought about the consequences of _that _action for a moment.

And of course, she had her brunch today. What would Celebrity Guy say if she missed her brunch?

"Can't you get, like, a throat transplant or something?" she asked. Dr. Carr shook his head.

"I'll get you a phone so that you can call your parents – so they won't worry."

* * *

The phone call from Brin changed everything. Suddenly, Max wasn't so worried about her promise to not use her 'skills' for 'evil' anymore. Now, she was more intent than every on meeting the Celebrity Guy and finding out who he was than ever before.

"Can't your parents drop off your invitation on the way to the hospital or something?" Max asked.

"_Well, my parents don't really know I'm in the hospital right now," _Brin said. _"I didn't get a chance to tell them. I thought it was nothing!" _

"'Thought it was nothing,'" Max mocked under her breath. "Well, how about if I go over there and ask to see you, then get the invitation from your room? Then Jondy and I will be able to go – "

"_The invitation is for me, remember?" _

"I can get past that," Max shrugged.

"_No you can't," _Max could practically **hear **Brin's sneer over the phone. _"You may be the Max Lydecker - you may be a cat burglar, most likely to become prom queen, and keeping the Red Bull industry afloat to boot - but you _cannot _sneak into an invitation only brunch being held by one of the biggest celebrities on this side of the continent." _

Max shrugged. "Try me."

"_Okay then. Get into my house undetected, find the invitation and somehow find a way to be me by ten and I'll finally admit that you deserve all of the things you've been given." _

Max accepted the challenge.

* * *

**A/N: Yes, yes, I know! "It's been, like, three months, what the heck are you thinking that you could just come back with a less than spectacular chapter?" but pity me, all right? I wrote several horrible drafts of this before coming up with something that I thought I wouldn't get shunned for. You do get the story on how Brin came about to meet Max in this story, though. **

**Oh, and my computer decided to go psycho and start deleting everything I put on it, so I had to tread carefully. And now I've got exams, so my updating might be a little bit sporadic for the next few weeks. **

**In the next chapter: Max does what she has to do to be right! But will she need a certain someone's help? **


	37. Chapter 37

Alec didn't move from the couch when Max ran up the stairs and returned to the living room dragging something along with her. It was only five seconds after she shouted "I'm borrowing the Viper!" (Alec had gotten far too used to Max stealing his cars to care) that he realized that the thing she had dragged along behind her was...

His girlfriend. Rachel.

"Wait!" Alec sprang up from the couch and ran to the garage. Max was still trying to figure out which key went to the Dodge Viper when he burst through the door. "Where are you going?"

"Rachel's going to the brunch with us, hope you don't mind," Max said, finally deciding on a key and sticking it in the door. It fit.

"Did Rachel _agree _to this?" Alec asked. Max looked at Rachel with a meaningful stare. Rachel was still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Yeah, she totally agreed. Get in, Rach," Max all but shoved Rachel into the passenger seat.

"Rachel, you know, I know she may seem sort of like a demon, but Max is only human. You i can /i say no," Alec reminded her.

"No, it's all right," Rachel smiled wanely at him. "I'm glad to help her out."

"See?" Max stuck the key into the ignition. "She's all for it. _You're _just paranoid." And with that, the car tore out of the garage (nearly hitting Alec's bike - which he wasn't happy about at all) and onto the street outside. Alec didn't feel very good about this whole situation at all. But he wasn't about to worry himself about anything. His bio mom always used to tell him "Don't worry or you'll get wrinkles!"

So Alec called up some of the dudes from school, told them to bring money and had a poker party in the game room.

"Dude, why did no one tell me we had a game room?" Sketchy asked after recieving the voicemail invitation (Alec had to clear the game room - which was where Original Cindy and Max commonly held their little girly sleepover parties or whatever in - of all girl-related paraphenelia, so he had Bling call the guys and invite them).

"You're telling me," Alec crossed his arms. "I only learned this place was down here four months ago. Turns out it was originally supposed to be a panic room or something... well, the plans fell through and Mom covered all that stainless steel with wall paper and added some throw pillows and other girly shit. I'm pretty sure there are still some bank notes hidden under the floorboards, though." Sketchy gave him a look.

"This place originally belonged to my bio mom, she was a designer," Alec explained. "Interior, fashion, cosmetics... the family had a hand in pretty much everything that chicks used."

"So what happened?" Sketchy asked.

"The divorce," Alec shrugged. "Dad took Mom for everything she had and more. I think she's actually paying child support now, too."

"What about Original Cindy's biological dad?" Sketchy asked. "What did he do?"

Alec chuckled. "We haven't figured out who Original Cindy's dad _is_ yet. But don't worry, when we do you'll see a whole special about it on _Oprah." _

Everyone arrived at about eleven and the game started a few minutes later. Joshua had some trouble holding his cars at first, but then he took his paws off, revealing... absolutely normal hands. A little pale, but with no odd disfigurements or anything.

Well there goes all of Alec's theories about what Joshua looked like under the suit.

"Have we ever seen those before?" Alec muttered to Zack, gesturing at Josh's hands.

"He takes his paws off to drink tequila shots sometimes," Zack told him. "but that's about it."

"Are you talking about me?" Joshua asked in a scarily rumbling voice.

"Uh... no, no, no." Alec shook his head. "I fold, you win, man." Very triumphantly (as much as Alec could tell from the movements of Joshua's hands) Joshua gathered the chips over to his side of the table.

"Zane," Zack yelled over to where Zane was messing with the remote control. "No," Zack said firmly. Zane made a face and dropped the remote.

Zack had explained when he came over that Zane preferred not to play card games... mostly because he had a lousy poker face. Zane, of course, had taken an immediate interest in the home entertainment system and wasn't heard from for the entire time they'd been playing. It was starting to freak Alec out because he'd never really taken Zane as the quiet type.

"So, Alec," Zane said, taking the empty seat next to his big brother. "You live in this house, like, all alone most the time with Maxie and Cin, right?" he asked.

"And Sketchy," Alec said, pushing two more chips into the pile.

"So you must see some pretty gnarly stuff go down?" Zane asked, completely ignoring Sketchy's presence.

"By 'gnarly' he means 'girl-on-girl'," Zack translated.

"No, not really," Alec shrugged. "Cindy was a lot worse before Max and Sketch moved in. She used to always have chicks over. It was kind of unbearable." He grinned. "And hot."

"But nothing since then?" Zane asked. Alec shook his head.

"Cindy hasn't even had a girlfriend since that last one cheated on her and went to jail for, I dunno, murder in the first degree or something. Before that she used to be a real wildcat." There was silence around the table for a few moments.

"Murder?" Sketchy asked.

"Cheated on Cindy?" Joshua repeated in shock.

"Oh yeah, OC was heartbroken, she never expected it." Alec leaned closer to the center of the table and gestured for them to do the same. Everyone did except for Krit, who was still looking at his cards. "I'll tell you everything that happened, just as long as it doesn't leave this room."

"Oh yeah."

"Sure."

"Talk, Romeo."

"Ruff." Alec quirked an eyebrow at Josh.

"He sometimes gets confused by the dog persona," Zack whispered to Alec.

"Oh," Alec nodded. "All right then. It started a little like this."

And he started to tell.

Original Cindy was, well, originally an average girl named Cynthia McEachin (something known to only family members and teachers). Her mom was kind of...

"Promiscuous." Alec said after a pause.

"You mean a slut?" Sketchy asked.

"Well, I think the term they like to use is 'exotic dancing 'til graduation'." Because Cynthia McEachin's mom was in training to become an ER nurse. When Cindy was three, her mother achieved her life-long dream and became a nurse. While working as a nurse, she met Alec's dad and through a mysterious string of events found out about Alec's dad's... um, side business...

"Side business?" Zack chortled. "You make it sound like your family's in the mafia." Everyone at the table, excluding Alec, shared a laugh until they realized that Alec wasn't exactly denying it.

"I'll continue," Alec said in a completely serious tone.

So, Cindy's mom met Alec's dad while working the nightshift in the ER. Alec never really understood why his dad was in the ER that night, he was too young to remember it, but his father often referred to that night as the "night your Uncle No Nails got his Manticore manicure". Needless to say, two weeks later Mrs. McEachin and Mr. McDowell were married in a lavish ceremony complete with the releasing of twelve white doves.

Fastforward ten years later, to where Cynthia McEachin had become a slightly mal-adjusted young teenager who didn't talk much (while Alec's charm and good looks and selective sociopathy made him a hit with the girls at school). Cindy had struggled to find an identity for herself for the past three years. She wasn't quite like her mother, Boss McEachin, and she wasn't quite like Alec's family either. Not to mention she couldn't really find clothes that she liked in the designer stores that her mother insisted she shop at. And then she met Diamond.

"Who's Diamond?" Sketchy asked.

"Gettin' there," Alec growled. "Diamond was Original Cindy's first real friend. Then she was her first girlfriend and then she was her first... well," he shrugged. "You know where I'm heading with that."

"How do you know all of this?" Zack asked.

"Our last house had a very extensive air vent system," Alec said. "I heard everything."

"So what happened then?" Joshua asked.

"Well, then OC - "

"Who ya'll talkin' about?" a voice said from the doorway.

All of the guys turned to the door and saw Original Cindy, still fly as ever even in fuzzy slippers and a nightshirt.

"No one, Cindy," Alec said, sitting back in his seat. "Why would you think we were talking about somebody?"

"'Cuz it's you," OC said. "And if you didn't invite me, then you must be talkin' about me."

"We're rating girls," Krit said suddenly. Everyone turned to him. Well, _damn_, Alec had kind of forgotten he was still there. "We were just on you but Alec said you were inapplicable." Original Cindy frowned.

"Inapplicable? Why?"

Krit shrugged, but didn't speak.

"Psh, I'll show you inapplicable," Original Cindy headed over to the table. She stared hard at Zane, who immediately jumped out of his chair and offered it to her. "Deal me in," Cindy ordered. It was then that a thought occured to Zane.

"Hey, Alec, what's... Manticore?" Alec and Original Cindy shared a look.

"So how far have you gotten on this whole rating game? 'Cuz I want in on that, too," Cindy said, ignoring the question.

"We just finished the cheerleading squad and we're on the debate team."

* * *

Five hours after Original Cindy kicked all of their asses and won five thousand dollars, Alec and Cindy were, by definition, chillin' on the couch and watching a cooking show. All the guys were gone, including Sketchy who had gone to Druid's house. 

"We should get Bling to make this stuff sometime," Alec said.

"Mm-hmm," Original Cindy agreed. "So what were you guys really talkin' about in there?" she asked.

"You," Alec said immediately.

"Okay."

And they were still in their slightly-less-than-comatose positions when Max came in through the garage entrance jabbering like she'd just downed a fifty-pack of Red Bull.

"Hey guys. How's it going? Great. Me? Nothin'. Gotta go finish my chem homework - you know Vertes, she's a killer. Nice talkin' to ya, gotta blaze." She spoke continuously until she was up the stairs, then they heard the door to her room slam.

It was only a few minutes later that Alec noticed something wrong with this picture.

"Where's Rachel?"

* * *

**A/N: Yes, yes, I know. "It's been several months, why haven't you updated? Rotten tomatoes all around." Well, I assure you, I have NOT lost interest in this fic and I am going to continue it. It's just that school wasn't nearly as over as I thought and I had to deal with some stuff. But, now that I've got the new schoolyear coming up, I'll have lots of time! **

**So, the next chapter should be out soon. Hopefully. Yeah, bye!**


End file.
